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THE 



DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 



UNITED STATES. 

YY&deY^cl\ T\Ao\Yhus> lac-v\£^vcL- 



" No man goeth about a more godly purpose tlian he that is mindful of the good bringing 
up, both of his own and other men's children." — Socrates, as quoted by Roger Ascham in 
Prejace to "The Schoolmaster." 

" I sometimes am tempted to doubt, whether any one who tries to open people's eyes in 
science, politics or religion, is to be reckoned as a sublime martj'-r or an egregious fool." — 
Eobertson's Life and Letters, American Edition, vol. i. 157. 



PHILADELPHIA: 

B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. 
1866. 




[.Cm 

■Ply 



NOTE. 



It is in no carping or hypercritical spirit that we enter upon the present in- 
quiry. If the DAILY PuiUjic SCHOOL in our country is not doing its appropriate 
work well and thoroughly, it is clear that we are without any adequate barrier 
to the prevalence of ignorance and superstition, radicalism and infidelity, how- 
ever lavish may be our expenditures on higher grades of instruction. With so 
large a liberty as we enjoy, the diifusion of intelligence, the cultivation of good 
manners and due attention to moral and religious principle as the basis of 
character, are indispensable to our safety.* 

It is our firm belief that the confidence reposed in our present common school 
system is delusive. And that while specific branches of knowledge have ad- 
vanced in later years, and some spheres of education have been greatly widened 
and improved, the work of preparing the great body of the school children of 
the country for the duties and responsibilities of life, is very imperfectly done. 
It is no ideal standard that is fixed arbitrarily and without regard to what is 
practicable, to which we would bring the education of the daily public school. 
There is a plain meaning to the phrase used in one or more of our school laws, 
" thoroughly instructed ;" and it has no ambiguity when used concerning 
other things. Everybody understands what " thoroughly instructed" means, 
when applied to a shoemaker, a wheelwright, or an engineer. It- is tantamount- 
to saying he is master of his business. Why should we not understand the 
same phrase in the same way when applied by law to the art of reading and 
writing? 

The chief end of the present discussion will be answered if it shall lead our 
fellow-citizens to consider, thoughtfully, whether the daily public school in 
our regenerated Union, is fitting our boys and girls to be useful, intelligent 
(not learned), practical, well-bred, patriotic and godly men and women. And 
that we may the better accomplish our purpose in respect to the particular States 
embraced in this survey, we have made the schools of each the subject of a dis- 
tinct review. This necessarily involves some repetition which the reader will 
notice, and, we hope, excuse. 

* Oui- national life hangs upon our common schools. — Princeton Review, January, 
1866, p. 39. 



THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 



UNITED STATES 



An outline of a proposed history of public education in the 
United States, was published in the Annual Report of the Regents 
of the Smithsonian Institute for 1863. It contemplated the fol- 
lowing topics : 

I. The necessity of universal education under free political in- 
stitutions, and what should be its character and extent. 

II. A connected sketch of the legislation of the country on this 
subject from its beginning. 

III. An abstract or synopsis of all laws now in force in the seve- 
ral States touching public education, and of contemporaneous judi- 
cial expositions of the law, so far as they affect the essential prin- 
ciples of the system. 

IV. A sketch of the present state of public education in the 
country : 

[a.) Of the division of territory for school purposes, what and 
how made ? 

{h.) Of the manner of raising money for the support of schools, 
and the amount raised and expended in each decade of years, of the 
present century. 

(c.) Of the permanent revenue for the support of schools ; if de- 
rived from a fund, when and how was such fund created, and what 
is its amount and investment ? What portion of the annual school 
expense is derived from it, and what is its effect to stimulate or de- 
press the working of the system? 

[d.) Of the number and average age of children under instruc- 
tion, distinguishing the sex ; the number in attendance in propor- 
tion to the whole population, and the average time of attendance. 

[e.) Of the mode of employing teachers and determining their 
qualifications. 

(/.) Of the nu7nber of teachers employed, distinguishing the 
sex ; the compensation allowed ; the average age of teachers, male 
and female separate ; and the average amount of time employed in 



6 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 

daily teaching, making distinct heads of summer and winter 
schools. 

[g.) Of the hranclics taught in the public schools, and the pro- 
portion of time devoted to each. 

[h.) Of the preparation and introduction of scJwol-booJcs ; charac- 
ter of them in early schools — improvements in them ; expense of 
them, and by whom borne ; and the number and variety of them, 
in the different branches, which are in use in the different schools. 

V. Of normal schools, number, when organized, how supported, 
number of pupils, terms and conditions of admission ; what propor- 
tion of pupils pursue teaching for a livelihood, and what proportion 
of these succeed. 

VI. Of school-houses, their number, average capacity, manner 
and means of building, and improvements in respect to sites, venti- 
lation, heating, furniture, out-houses, &c., &c. 

VII. Of school-libraries, number of schools supplied with them : 
how and by whoin selected ; funds to purchase, and the amount and 
source of the same ; number and character of volumes ; cost, mode 
of distributing, and preserving, and extent of circulation. 

VIII. Of the religious element in public schools ; if less than 
formerly, why? To what extent necessary and practicable? 

IX. Of popular manners and customs in the schools ; habits of 
thinking and acting ; domestic and social character, and qualifica- 
tions for citizenship, as they are influenced by our systems of public 
education. 

X. Of physical education, what time appropriated to it ; what 
facilities and encouragements are afforded ; what methods adopted, 
as drill, gymnasium, or athletic games ; and what part teachers 
take therein. 

XI. Of infant-schools. 

XII. Of iSunday-schools. 

XIII. Of colleges and other public literary institutions, so far as 
they afford aid to, or receive aid from, the public schools. 

XIV. Of the comparative expense and value of public education 
at different periods of our history. 

XV. Of lyceums, mechanics' institutes, everiing schools, and other 
methods of adult education, to make other means of education 
available, or to compensate for the want or neglect of early advan- 
tages. 

XVI. Number of persons of school age that are under instruc- 
tion, the proportion of the population that can both read and write ; 
and the numbers of pupils, that, upon leaving school, may engage in 
the active pursuits of life with a superior physical, moral and in 
tellectual character. 

The filling up of this outline would show in regard to all our 
States, what the present publication attempts to show, in some par- 



IN THE UNITED STATES. T 

ticulars, in regard to a portion of them. It has less of detail on some 
points and is more diffusive in others, than would be proper in a 
strictly statistical and historical treatise, but in its general features 
it will serve to indicate the shape which the proposed work would 
have, if it should be done, and the class of facts which it would 
embrace. 

On the first topic named above, there can be but one opinion. 
People that choose their own rulers, should be intelligent enough 
to determine who deserve their confidence. And only by being 
intelligent can they escape the impositions which ignorance in- 
vites and cannot resist. Our system of government is such as to 
require a certain measure of popular education to be universal. 
The people of ten States may have intelligence enough to qualify 
them for the high privilege of voting for their rulers ; but if the 
people of twenty other States are ignorant and for that reason 
mere puppets in the hands of political wire-pullers, the curse of 
their ignorance alights upon the whole country, in the form of an 
unworthy Chief Magistrate, or an incompetent and vicious Congress. 
Our State lines are like the wake of a vessel by which the waters 
seem to be divided, while, in fact, they only mingle more perfectly. 
Crime and ignorance do not respect or even recognize them. An 
ignorant man or woman, dwelling under the folds of our national 
flag, is a reproach, and, may be in some sense, a calamity to the 
whole people. 

Nothing human can secure the good order and prosperity of our 
country for any length of time, but the diffusion of education, in- 
tellectual and moral, among all classes and in all communities. We 
have no foe to the permanency of our free institutions more terrible 
than IGNORANCE. It breeds superstition, and against both the mother 
and her offspring, a popular government is powerless. We owe 
two-thirds of our crime, and we will not say how much of our 
misery, to popular ignorance. Each succeeding census awakens 
new anticipations of the greatness and glory of our country. But 
if we could as accurately measure the progress of intelligence, vir- 
tue and true independence, in the great body of the people, as we 
can their numerical increase, we might find more ground for 
anxiety than for exultation. When the masses are qualified to 
judge intelligently of the principles and measures of the government, 
the power to direct and control those measures cannot be in better 



8 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 

hands than their own ; but a blind Samson shoukl not be intro- 
duced into the temple of liberty even to make sport, lest he should 
lay hold of its pillars and involve himself and the multitude around 
him in a common ruin. 

It has been asked — why, if the safety of the nation depends on 
the education of the people, their education is not made a national 
concern?* 

Whatever might have been practicable and wise at the outset, 
the time has probably gone by in which the jurisdiction of the 
general government might be enlarged at the expense of State 
power and privilege. There will never be less jealousy on that score 
than there is now. And though perhaps under the power lodged 
in Congress to " provide for the general welfare," this most im- 
portant department of public economy would be legitimately com- 
mitted to its oversight and direction, it might be found very diflBcult 
to adapt any general system to the peculiar character and circum- 
stances of the different sections of the country. But, so long as 
the education of our children is conducted under the laws of the 
separate States, without any homogeneousness in the methods 
adopted for their sustenance and management, we shall lack a most 
important auxiliary to a true nationality. This is so clearly and 
forcibly set forth in a private letter from one of our most dis- 
tinguished statesmen,"!" that we cannot refrain from using it. 

The want has been incident to all confederated States in all 
ages of the world. No mere league or treaty of alliance or fede- 
ral compact has been able to give the whole people concerned, a 
common country. Our Union has been more intimate than that of 
any other States, and yet I fear I must say, it has as completely 
failed in this respect, as it has in other countries in ancient or in 
comparatively modern times. We are born in the States — the 
State laws, l3earing upon our most intimate personal relations are 
over us, and State officers are the agents for their enforcement. It 
requires a higher view and more extended observation than the 
young take, or than the course of education takes, to see and feel the , 
bearings of the Union upon ourselves personally. I should almost 
despair of our ever finding an effectual corrective if our domestic 
institutions Avcre to remain permanently in the same condition, in 
all respects, as they have been. Thus far, beyond doubt, the differ- 
ences in certain of the State institutions have caused the greater 

* North Am. Rev., July, 18G-1. 
f Hon. Horace Binney. 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 9 

part of our troubles, and finally brought about the greatest. But 
the wisest men do not see very far into the future, and we ought 
not to despair under the good Providence that is over us, of reaping 
the fruit of steady endeavour to do that which is right, as well in 
the public as in the private relation. 

Certainly one of the right ways is to accustom our children and 
young people from early life, to have the whole country and nation 
always before them, and to keep its symbol in their hearts by every 
means which can associate it with our virtue, our honour, and our 
public and domestic safety. The recent fearful conflict may be, for 
aught we know, the intended instruction to this effect from the 
Great Teacher. Our welfare at home and abroad depends, I be- 
lieve, upon our feeding it well and constantly. 

It is very easy to sketch a magnificent scheme of national in- 
struction ; beginning with the infant school and terminating in a 
colossal university ; assigning a fixed term of years and a corps of 
teachers and professors to each grade, and drawing on the Treasu- 
rer of the United States at the close of the year, for twenty or forty 
millions to cover the expense. And it may be shown, moreover, 
that such stupendous enterprises have been successful in Holland, 
in France, and in Prussia. But we must never forget that with 
them the people depend on the government, while with us, the gov- 
ernment depends on the people. All our ministers of State and of 
religion combined, cannot open a church nor close a grog shop 
against the will of the people. It is one thing to lead a horse to the 
brook, and another to make him drink. The idea of " American- 
izing European philosophies," is as preposterous as that of oaking 
a pinetree, or potato-izing a head of cabbage. 

In such an inquiry as we now propose to make, there meets us at 
the threshold the difficulty of establishing any standard by which 
the proficiency of a child or a school in good learning shall be de- 
termined. Each of the several States being left to adopt its own 
scheme, and to determine what shall be the method and the mea- 
sure of education, imparted at public expense, to all classes of chil- 
dren and youth within its bounds, it is quite impossible to secure 
that uniformity of method, or thoroughness of administration, or 
strictness of responsibility which a well-managed national bureau 
might achieve. The whole work is fragmentary and immethodical. 
Each State must have a difi'erent standard, grade or measure of 
school culture. It must have its own mode of preparing and em- 
ploying teachers, of paying school expenses, supplying books and 



10 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 

superintending the movements of the machinery. Some have 
boards of education, some superintendents of public instruction ; 
others manage their schools by committees, and in not a few cases 
are they left in a great measure to take care of themselves. And 
even when the reports of any two States happen to embrace the same 
items inform, they are made up on different bases, and no compara- 
tive deductions can be made from them. This will be obvious if 
we contrast any of our State reports Avith the reports of the Com- 
mittee of the Privy Council on Education in England, or of other 
European countries, in which we have a single connected view of 
the working of the whole machinery and all its connections and 
results, as if it were the report of a parish or district school. What 
disadvantages may result from such a concentration of the power 
to superintend and direct the public education of the country, it is 
not pertinent to our present object to inquire. 

If we look over our vast territory, we shall find indeed a 
very liberal expenditure in this department of public affairs, and in 
many of the States an imposing array of functionaries charged with 
the special . duty of making the schools prolific of w^se and good 
men and women ; but if the details are investigated with candour 
and thoroughness, it will be found, we apprehend, that the faculties 
have been exercised very much at random, that what has been at- 
tained has been almost as much the result of accident as design, 
and that a dull routine has oftentimes weakened and wearied the 
immature mind that should have been excited and led forward to 
ennobling pursuits. 

What the national mind produces, and what the national mind 
craves and relishes, will indicate with tolerable accuracy how the 
national mind is educated. If the periodical and permanent issues 
of the press are to a large extent frothy, barren of thought, stimu- 
lating the imagination or the passions, and imposing no task upon 
the understanding, is it not a legitimate inference that the average 
education of the people does not rise above this point ? 

But there are various ways of testing more minutely the degree 
of education in a community. If reference is had to the elementary 
branches taught in our daily public schools, as orthography, reading, 
writing, &c., the proficiency of any thousand country boys and 
girls in them, would be seen in the letters they write and the way 



IN THE UNITED STATES. li 

in Avhicli they read a paragraph in the newspaper, or a passage of 
Scripture in the Sunday-school or Bible-class. 

Such observation as we have been enabled to make in inter- 
views with many thousands of children and youth, satisfies us that 
nine in ten of them are incompetent to read properly a paragraph 
in the newspaper, to keep a simple debt and credit account in a 
mechanic's shop, or to write an ordinary business letter in a credi- 
table way, as to chirography, orthography or a grammatical ex- 
pression of ideas. 

The opportunity to know something of the average grade of 
education in large masses, has been afforded by intercourse with 
our late army. One of the most active, intelligent and faithful 
chaplains, whose acquaintance was very extensive, tells us that 
though he did not make it a subject of special inquiry while in the 
service, he could not avoid some impression as to how well the 
men had been educated in those things which a common school is 
expected to teach; and by conversing with others, he found their 
opinions coincided in the main with his own. "A very large ma- 
jority of the soldiers born and brought up in the Northwestern 
States," he says, " could read and write, but of these many could 
read but very imperfectly, and composed a letter with great difii- 
culty. Union soldiers from the slave States were deplorably des- 
titute of common school education. Thousands of soldiers learned 
to write letters while in the army. In my army Sunday-school of 
150 to 250 from my own regiment, I found that a large number 
were poor readers. They were very imperfectly taught in the 
common schools. The same I found true of schools in other regi- 
ments. The letter writing showed that the writers were very im- 
perfectly instructed in orthography. The average age of the 
soldiers I met, was certainly under thirty years. In a .word, our 
soldiers in their education show that a great improvement is needed 
in our common schools." 

In the absence of any general law in our country requiring par- 
ties to sign their names to a marriage contract,* we must resort to 
incidental evidence of the same nature, such as the following. 

* A report from M. Jules Simon, touching the interests of popular education in 
France, informs us that of 100 people who present themselves for marriage, more 
than 35 are unable to sign their names — that of the rest, many can write nothing 
but their names. Of 100 of the age of 20, 27 could neither read nor write in 1862, 



12 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 

At a public meeting at Cooper Institute, New York, last Oc- 
tober, a member of the bar, largely conversant with all classes of 
society, stated that the ability to read and write is by no means 
so universal as is generally supposed, and in proof of it he men- 
tioned that he had occasion to issue subpoenas to 40 persons, of whom 
30 made their mark ! Reports from juvenile asylums and homes, and 
houses of reformation, give abundant evidence of the failure of our 
schools to educate those who most need their aid. 

It may be supposed that these evidences of a low state of edu- 
cation, are applicable only to the humbler classes of society, whose 
opportunities of instruction are few and far between. But persons 
who are employed in the various publishing houses of the country as 
editors or collaborators, will tell us that the evidences of the superfi- 
cialness of attainments in the elementary branches are overAvhelming. 
There may be sensible thoughts and an exuberant fancy, but the 
power of intelligible and proper expression has not been cultivated. 
The meaning and force of words are totally misconceived, and their 
collocation is anything but creditable. And we are not without 
occasional proof of the like deficiency in the higher spheres of 
society. Take as an instance the following, which is copied from 
the Senate Journal of the State of New Jersey,* February 24, 
1843. 

Mr. Potter, from the Committee on Militia, presented the fol- 
lowing report : 

Capt. Daniel Baker : — We, the undersigned, joint Committee 
of the Militia of Council and General Assembly of this State, from 
the furtherance of our duties which led us to examine and pass in 
review the state and condition of the armory and arsenal of this 
State, now under your immediate superintendence, and can hereby 
consider it our duty in expression of our delight, as was produced 
upon said examination, to testify to you our expression of thanks 
for the pride manifest in the good order, system and arrangement 
discoverable in condition of arms, ordinance and accoutrements 
entrusted to your care, and in this consideration would think it any- 

* It is not irrelevant to state, that by the latest report of the New Jersey schools, 
it appears that of 190,000 children of school age in the State, less than 29,000 were 
in attendance upon schools during the year. The average attendance of those en- 
rolled was less than 25 per cent., while 50,000 did not enter a school at all! The 
number of teachers employed was one to about 100 pupils. The pay of males was 
at the rate of f.TG per month, and the females a little over $22. Cost per head, in- 
cluding all expenses, $3. 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 13 

thing but proper to withhold our approbation from this testimony of 
our thankful obligations as due to you in the discharge and per- 
formance of duties necessarily devolving on you, and made obliga- 
tory for a proper discharge and performance of duty as required. 

Signed by three members of Council and five members of As- 
sembly. 

There is very little reliance to be placed on general reports of 
the state of education in any locality. We have sometimes seen 
in census returns and tabular statements of prisons and reform 
schools a column headed, "No. who cannot read or write;" but no- 
thing can be more vague than the standard by which such returns or 
statements are made up. If it were required to report the number of 
persons in a given district whose clear annual income is known to 
be over one thousand dollars, it might be done with considerable 
accuracy, but if the inquiry were, how many persons in the district 
were "well off," the task would be parallel with that of deter- 
mining how many can read and write. We recollect that a repre- 
sentative in one of the New England legislatures once remarked, 
with considerable exultation, that there was no person over twenty- 
one in his town. that could not read and write; but a conveyancer 
who was present was able to name to him at least three of his own 
constituents, who, in signing deeds a short time before, had made 
their mark, and probably there were not twenty deeds made in the 
town during that year ! Thus showing that one in seven of this 
select class lacked this important accomplishment. 

It must be borne in mind that we are treating in this connection 
not of the state of education in our cities and principal towns, 
where an extraordinary outlay of money and care is bestowed upon 
the public schools (though we apprehend there are manifold deficien- 
cies even there), but of the rural districts, where are found (say) 
twenty-eight out of every thirty children in the United States. 

This brief reference will perhaps suffice to show that educa- 
tion in our country, at the present time, is neither in character nor 
extent what our free political institutions demand to ensure their 
continuance. That our requirements in this behalf are not ex- 
travagant will readily appear from the following : 

The idea I have set before myself as to the secular education 
practically attainable by a labouring man's child is, that before he 
leaves school he shall be able to read an ordinary newspaper para- 



14 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 

graph at sight ; to Avrite a fair grammatical and well-spelled letter 
on a common subject ; to work on his slate or in his head any such 
ordinary sum as he might meet with in practical life, and to show 
a fciir acquaintance with the geography of his own country and 
neighbourhood.* 

We should be quite willing to accept this as the measure of learn- 
ing to which every child in our country should attain before leaving 
school, but it by no means comprehends what we should regard as 
a completed work. It has been said that a "man entering into life 
ought accurately to know three classes of things : 

"1. Where he is ; Avhat sort of a world he has got into ; what kind 
of creatures live in it ; how large it is ; what it is made for, and 
what may be made of it;" — and, we would add, who made it? 

'• 2. Where he is going ; what chances or reports there are of any 
world besides this, and what may be the nature of that other 
world. 

" 3. What he had better do under these circumstances ; what kind 
of faculties he possesses; what is his place in society ; what are the 
present wants of mankind ; what are his means of obtaining happi- 
ness and diffusing it. 

"The man who knows these things is educated; he who knows 
them not is not educated, though he can talk in all the tongues of 
Babel, "t 

The world is full of wonders with which the proper use of our 
senses would familiarize us without books or teachers. The flower, 
the tree, the water, the insect, the light — who that is not blind but 
feels some curiosity to know what is their nature and place among 
created things ? 

How few of the boys and girls who leave our schools have any 
distinct conception of the movements of those immense wheels in 
the machinery of physical nature that are constantly open to their 
inspection ? The journey the earth makes round the sun, or that 
the moon makes round the earth, or that the earth makes on its 
own axis, or of the phenomena of night and day, cold and heat, 
summer and winter, resulting from these revolutions? Who of them 
notes the year, the month, and the day as divisions of time estab- 

* Mr. Jackson one of the government Inspectors of Scotch schools. 
t Ruskin. 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 15 

lished in the constitution of the world, and inscribed on the grand 
dial-plate of nature ? 

We may have an imposing array of educational institutions of a 
higher grade, as colleges, academies, and high schools, in which a 
few are introduced favourably into the marvellous exhibition which 
science and art unveil to us, but the children of the United 
States are not educated in them. Here and there one comes up 
out of the common rank of school children into these higher spheres, 
to become a man of mark and to exert a wide influence ; while the 
vast multitude of men and women, the fathers and mothers, the 
workers and voters, have their literary training almost exclusively 
in those little one-story buildings by the wayside, that rarely at- 
tract the traveller's notice except when they are more than usually 
shabby or more than usually respectable. It is the "education" 
given here, so far as the public purse is concerned, that forms the 
"common mind" of our people, and determines the character, con- 
trols the will, and shapes the destiny of the American nation. 

The number of pupils in the colleges, academies and high schools 
of Pennsylvania, for example, does not exceed eight thousand, or 
one to eighty in the public schools ; and in Ohio the former do not 
exceed three thousand six hundred, or one to 07ie hundred and ninety- 
three in the public schools. The manners, habits, tastes, associa- 
tions and aspirations of the million (that do not originate at home) 
are to be traced directly to the daily public school ; and no person 
of observation or reflection will deny that one of the most important 
functions of that institution is, or should be, to counteract the in- 
fluence of ill-governed, thriftless, and immoral homes. 

For important as the school is among the agencies that serve to 
educate a generation, it is comparatively a subordinate one. Un- 
doubtedly by far the largest share of the work is done at home, 
and that too not by direct intentional methods, but by the number- 
less incidental influences which act upon the minds and hearts 
of children as silently and mysteriously as light and air upon 
vegetable life. No one can look back upon his own childish days, 
however happy his home, without being reminded of a multitude 
of instances in which some paragraph in a book or a newspaper ; a 
picture, an anecdote, or a song ; a conversation overheard in a shop, a 
bar-room, or nt the street corner; a scene or a suggestion of mis- 



16 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 

chief — made a far deeper impression upon the mind and character 
than a month's, nay, perhaps a year's schooling. 

Who knows the individual hour in which 
His habits were first sown, even as a seed ? 
Who that shall point, as with a wand, and say, . 
This portion of the river of my mind 
Came from that fountain : that from this ? 

And at the school itself there are agencies continually active in 
the association of the pupils with each other, and in the personal, 
unofficial, demeanour of the teacher, which are as far out of the 
reach of school laws and committees and boards, as are the infinitesi- 
mals floating in the sunbeam. The subtle, impalpable influence of 
a teacher, or indeed any adult, in a group of children is rarely appre- 
ciated, and how few who occupy such a position seem conscious of 
the power that resides in voice and feature, as well as in act ! 

Now and then a man rises up out of the great congregation of 
nominal educators who seems to possess a magical power over the 
minds of youth, and realizes an intimacy of communion with them 
and secures such a measure of their confidence that they allow 
themselves to be moulded very much by his Avill. To do this, how- 
ever, he must be "so impressed with the dignity of his calling (and 
what calling save the cure of souls is more dignified?); so full of 
chastened respect for himself as to command the respect of his 
pupils, though he may fail for a while to command that of the more 
unthinking of the public." 

In general terms, the teacher's work lies almost as much in 
negative as in positive influences. As w^e have intimated, he has 
quite as much to do in correcting habits of mind and body con- 
tracted outside of the school-room, as in securing the positive results 
of progress in good learning, and a due respect for authority 
within. 

Among the obvious advantages intended to be derived from the 
daily public school are : 1, Employment, which keeps children out 
of mischief and out of the parent's and harm's way ; 2. The ac- 
quisition of useful knowledge ; and 3. Discipline, or the habit of 
conforming to rules ; and in our country, where the prevailing ten- 
dency is to "despise authorities," a good school is invaluable if 
it were only for its disciplinary power. But our present purpose 
requires a more particular specification of what our daily public 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 17 

schools are supposed or expected to do towards preparing boys and 
girls for their probable callings in our country and times. 

As TO Boys. — What schooling does every American boy want, 
which the community is bound to give, to fit him for the work 
of his manhood? He is to be one of the "sovereign people," as 
we are wont to speak of ourselves. He is to have a share in the 
government of the country. He is to help in determining what 
laws shall be made and who shall execute them. In a word, he is 
to be one of a self-governed community. It must, of course, be of 
the first importance that he should learn to control himself; and 
especially that he should recognize the supreme authority which 
alone gives force to all human laws and governments ; to which all 
potentates and rulers are equally amenable with their subjects, and 
before which colour, race or rank is of no significance. He is to be 
a freeman. With intelligence, industry, skill and honesty, he can 
Scarcely fail to obtain a competent livelihood, and a respectable social 
position. As he has his share of the blessings of liberty, he is ex- 
pected to bear his part in the duties and burdens of civil society. To 
be "intelligent," in the sense we mean, he needs a good knowledge 
of his native language, so as to speak, read and write it with pro- 
priety ; and a sufiicient acquaintance with figures to do with ease and 
accuracy the ordinary business that requires their use. He should 
have a general knowledge of the various countries and populations 
of the globe, and a special knowledge of the geography of his 
native land ; beginning with his own neighbourhood as a centre, 
and working outward to the bounds of county. State, country and 
continents. This knowledge should be sufiiciently thorough and 
minute to make ordinary geographical allusions in newspapers 
and public debates intelligible. He should also know enough of 
the peculiarities of our government to understand and appreciate 
his privileges, rights and duties under it. And his personal habits 
and manners should be so far regarded, in the progress of his school 
life, as to prepare him to become a kind neighbour, a thrifty and 
intelligent head of a family, and a quiet, courteous, loyal citizen. 

As to Girls. — The work of the daily public school for girls is 
in the main identical with that for boys. Indeed, in the great 
majority of our daily public schools the sexes are educated to- 
gether. This practice is not Avithout its disadvantages, and a 
teacher needs good judgment and careful discrimination to adapt 



18 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 

instruction and discijiline to those whose natural and moral tastes 
and temperaments, as well as their duties in life, are so diverse. 
At some stage in their school-going days, all girls should be in- 
structed in the elementary principles of physiology and the general 
rules for preserving health and promoting the comfort and thrift 
of a household. It is also desirable that those who have no outside 
means of acquiring the knowledge, should be taught the ordinary 
arts of housewifery, so that whatever may become of rhetoric, 
conic sections and constitutional law, the accomplishments needed 
by a daughter, wife and mother, in the ordinary circumstances of life, 
shall not be lacking. We would not be understood to advocate the 
conversion of our school-rooms into cook-shops or sewing-rooms,* 
but we would have the girls taught, what, as women, they will need 
to know. We are free to say that no beau-ideal of a public school 
for girls in our country, would require their teacher to be informed 
on either of the following subjects : The apportionment of repre- 
sentatives to Congress ; the constitutional rights of accused persons ; 
how direct and indirect taxes are imposed in the several States ; 
what are bills of attainder, or in what cases the Supreme Court has 
appellate jurisdiction. f They should be able to read the Bible or 
a newspaper with pleasure to themselves and others, to keep their 
father's or their own accounts correctly, to write a creditable letter 
to an absent brother, or husband (when they get one), and do the 
needful service for the minds and bodies of such a group of little 
children as God may commit to them. Such a training of a gene- 
ration of girls, would introduce marvellous changes into many a 
labourer's and mechanic's home. And it is only on the surface of 
their girlhood that the lines of their womanhood are engraven. 

No child should leave a daily public school in our country igno- 
rant of the generally received principles of the Christian faith. 
With millions of children's books and papers, and with their wide- 

* In all tbe country elementary schools of Prussia, girls are taught sewing, knit- 
ting and darning during two hours of the week, while all finer work, as embroidery, 
is forbidden. 

t These are among the questions lately submitted to a class of candidates for ad- 
mission to one of our Female High Schools. "When the prediction of some of our 
" woraen's-rights" women seem likely to be fulfilled, that tbe little girls now in our 
primary schools will be appointed to seats in the Senate and on the bench, these 
subjects should become quite prominent in their exercises. Till then they might 
give place to more practical lessons. 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 19 

spread Scriptural instruction through Sunday-schools, it would 
naturally be supposed that ignorance of the simple truths of religion 
would be very rare. It is to be feared, however, that the same 
superficial, immethodical, mechanical mode of dealing with minds 
and hearts, prevails to as great an extent in these schools as in 
others. The surface looks well, but too often a very slight exami- 
nation discloses the shallowness of the work. 

We were spending the summer in one of the most frequented 
towns of New Jersey, and in one of our rambles we met three girls, 
apparently 12, 10 and 8 years old. In conversation with them we 
found they were in daily attendance on school, and were connected 
with an "evangelical" Sunday-school. They all agreed in the 
answer of one, that when people die all the body turns to dust — ex- 
cept the bones. To the question, "With what do we think?" they 
replied, "With the tongue, don't we?" And when asked where 
wicked people go when they die, one said, quite seriously, " To the 
old boy, I s'pose." 

In both sexes the idea should be studiously inculcated, that 
honest labour is honourable ; that wealth confers no meritorious 
distinction any more than complexion or muscular strength — it is 
simply an endowment to be accounted for; that social distinctions 
are of no value or significance here, except so far as they arise 
from virtue and intelligence. That the only true independence is 
that which springs from a good conscience, a proper use of oppor- 
tunities and a firm belief that God will help those who bravely 
strive to do their duty. 

It should also be a part of all school education, to set forth the 
duty of cheerful submission to lawful authority. Obedience to the 
Creator, to parents and to the government of the country, should 
be required as the basis of any and every social organization. Love 
of country and the desire to honour, vindicate and defend the en- 
sign of national power and dignity, should be diligently inculcated 
upon both sexes in the whole course of school-life. In no country 
is this more needful than in ours, where, from the very nature of 
our institutions, the external tokens or symbols of authority are 
so rarely seen. We have no royal residence, no embodiment of 
power in a crown and sceptre, no state pageants or titles of dignity, 
to remind us of inequalities of rank. The greater therefore is the 
necessity of enjoining upon our common school children a due re- 



20 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 

gard for the supremacy of law and the duty of loyalty to the gov- 
ernment as ordained of God. 

It is admitted that in this sketch we content ourselves with a 
very humble grade of education. But we make up in thoroughness 
what we sacrifice in extent. We make the most of a garden-spot, 
instead of half cultivating twenty acres. We insist upon having 
good readers, spellers and writers, though we wait awhile for chem- 
ists, astronomers and engineers. We will go all reasonable lengths 
with the advocates of an enlarged system of popular education, 
when " thorough instruction" is secured in the plain branches as- 
signed to the daily public school. 

As a weighty argument in favour of such " thorough instruction" 
in these elementary branches, it should be remembered that the 
utility and efficiency of other educational agencies depend very 
much upon the faithfulness of this primary teaching. For example : 
to persons of as much intelligence as any good common school could 
scarcely fail to impart, the public ordinances of religion and the 
better class of the current productions of the press, must be sources 
of intellectual improvement and enjoyment. It is not possible for a 
man or woman to be habitually present at a place of public worship, 
Avithout hearing or seeing something to excite thoughtfulness. And 
hence our inference, that no single change in the habits of a com- 
munity would so soon and so disastrously affect its intellectual, not 
less than its moral and spiritual welfare, as the general abandon- 
ment of public worship. And is it not worthy of consideration, 
whether, among the causes which prevent so large a portion of the 
community from ever showing themselves in such places (except 
where the ritual or form of worship appeals merely to the senses), 
the want of sufficient education to enable them to understand or 
be profited by the service, is either the last or least? 

It must be understood between us and our readers, that we re- 
gard the daily, common or public school, as an institution by it- 
self. How we shall dispose of a boy or girl for whom such a school 
has done all it can (though the question may have an occasional ref- 
erence), is not within the scope of our present inquiry. Nor do 
we concern oui'selves with the teaching and training of infants, 
though any complete system of public instruction would properly 
provide for them the very best culture of which they are capable ; for 
there is no greater hinderance to the full success of our daily com- 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 21 

moil schools than what grows out of the moral, mental and physical 
habits acquired before children are of an age to be enrolled. These 
habits a good infant school might often prevent or correct. 

But we are now to look at the public school as occupying an in- 
termediate position between the infant school and the high school, 
academy or college — like the section of a canal between ascending 
locks. We do not mind, just now, from what lower level the freight 
comes, nor to what higher level it is destined. Let us look care- 
fully after it as it lies in the intervening space. 

To accomplish the legitimate purpose of a daily public school 
then, as we regard it, three things are obviously important. 

1. A right popular appreciation of the ivork. It is not enough 
that a great majority of children attend the schools for the re- 
quired time, though that would be a great advance from our pre- 
sent condition. Parents may bo very thankful to turn them 
over to the care of others for six or eight hours a day, provided the 
terras are cheap. At the^same time they may grudge every farthing 
that is required to uphold the system ; they may do nothing to 
favour the efforts of a teacher, not so much even as insisting on 
regularity and punctuality of attendance,* and they may withdraw 
their children as soon as their age makes their labour profitable, 
without any regard to their school interests. What we mean by a 
right popular appreciation of the public school will show itself (if 
it exists) in the pride which every parent feels in having done his 
and her share towards preparing a generation of intelligent, virtuous, 
patriotic citizens to value, preserve and transmit (improved if pos- 
sible) the institutions of a free government ; and at this point, we 
apprehend, lies the vice of the whole system. The government, — 
those Avho hold the municipal authority, — are bent upon educating 
the people, when in truth the people do not want to be educated. 
We set out a table,, furnish it with what we think wholesome food, 
and ask them to come and eat ; but they loathe the food, or take it 
with a weak and sickly appetite. The problem given us to solve 
is, how to persuade Patrick Moran the drayman, and Peter Maho- 
ney the cabman, and Charles Rothheimer the weaver, to send nine 
of the thirteen children in each family to school, with clean faces 
and hands and tidy clothes, in good season every day that the school 

'" The whole number of scholars enrolled in Pennsylvania public schools in 1865 
was 629,587, and the average attendance was 307,701 or less than half! 
. 3 



22 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 

is open. It is not needful that we should promise to teach them 
philosophy or religion. The very best way to reach the sympathies 
of their hard working (and too often hard drinking) parents, is to 
send Pat or Tommy or Bridget home to read to them out of the 
book or newspaper, or to write a nice little bit of a letter for them 
as good as the Colonel's or 'Squire's little daughter could write. For 
this purpose we want a man or woman that will furnish them, as soon 
as may be, witli these accomplishments ; that is, no more, no less 
than a plain common schoolmaster or mistress. All other arguments 
to bring the public school into favour become flat and unprofitable by 
the side of a good writer, reader, or reckoner — made such by regular 
attendance at it. And these attainments Avere made as readily, 
and we apprehend as thoroughly and generally in the daily public 
school before high and normal schools, teachers' Institutes, State 
funds, &c., were known, as they are now. Looking at the magni- 
tude of our expenditures, the vastness of the numbers we foot up 
upon our school rolls, the array of means for supplying teachers, 
our body of school laws, and the size, furniture, and architectural 
grandeur of our schoolhouses in a few localities, the impression is 
naturally made upon strangers — if not upon our own citizens — that 
we are doing the work of popular education on a grand scale. 
Thus, in a recent public address by the President of a Board of 
Education, the orator says : 

We see the noble structure of public education becoming more 
and more firmly fixed in the affections* of our people. Crowned 
heads across the water are enquiring, through their envoys, into 
the causes of the intellectual progress of our people, and these en- 
voys point to the public school as the main-spring of our prosperity. 

It is only when we look into details and analyze results, that we 
realize how much of all this is but a magnificent show, and how 
formidable and appalling is the mass of ignorance — ignorance of 
the very things that our daily public schools are first and most of 
all designed to teach — that has never yet been penetrated by 
more than a feeble ray of light. The simple explanation is, — the 
mass of the people and the daily public school are not walking in 
the same direction. 

2. Supposing the people to be in sympathy with the school, 

* \Yc forbear to criticise the ficrurc. 



IN THE UNITED STATES. , 23 

we want an enlightened liberal legislation, providing certain and 
sufficient means for the erection of suitable structures, appropriate 
in their form, size, situation and appurtenances to the uses for 
which they are designed ; and means for the adequate compensation 
of well qualified teachers. 

What Frazers Magazine says of the parish schoolhouse should 
be true, ^ar excellence, of the daily public schoolhouse. " It ought 
to be the most comfortable, the prettiest, the most attractive build- 
ing in the parish" (town). "To make it so, would be a burden 
almost imperceptible to the parishioners" (population), " except in a 
few very unfavourable and secluded situations. It is a case in 
which, above all others, I can conceive charity ought to begin at 
home, and one to which some foreign, more imposing projects of 
very chimerical utility might, without any incalculable loss to the 
community, give place. 

" There ought to be, in the season for it, plenty of cheerful fires ; 
plenty of sweet fresh air ; plenty of room, and plenty of light. 
Every child should be able to sit with his feet reaching the floor, 
and in an attitude of ease and comfort. It appears to me that 
nothing which can conduce to cheerfulness and comfort, or at least 
to the exclusion of every bodily discomfort, ought to be denied to 
a schoolroom. There is no place where the little people immedi- 
ately interested are so little fitted to battle with difficulties — none 
from which it is more indispensable that all adverse influences 
should be excluded. For little children from seven to twelve years 
to dig at the bitter root of learning in wet clothes, with benumbed 
feet and fingers, and crowded together in constrained attitudes, is 
an inhumanity which, if African negroes had to undergo, would 
cry not in vain for amendment. Then it might be asked, are the 
children to be left lounging listlessly as they like ? Is there to be 
no discipline, no order, no exactness ? So far from it I do not 
know anything that leads to more irksomeness than disorder or 
confusion — nothing that contributes more to comfort than exact- 
ness of mechanical discipline, even to a point which might be called 
regimental. I would keep them in their j)roper places, preserving 
right lines, sustaining attitudes of attention, and not only attitudes 
of attention, but testing, now and then, that it is attention itself. 
Smart discipline is perfectly reconcilable with good temper, and I 
believe it to be far more amusing than irksome, only it should not 



24 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 

he too long sustained. ' Stand at ease' is one of the most frequent 
regimental words of command, and some equivalent in schools 
should very frequently be resorted to." 

3. There should be such a system of control and superintendence 
by competent men as shall not only insure thorough, systematic 
and uniform instruction in the required branches, but shall also en- 
force regularity of attendance during the required school term. 

It will thus be perceived that our subject is restricted to very 
narrow limits. It is simply what measure and quality of education 
should be given in our daily public schools, and how nearly that 
measure and quality are reached under our present system. 

We start with the proposition that all the children between 
certain ages, who are competent to learn, shall be well and 
thoroughly taught in tlie art of reading, writing and spelling, and 
in geography, grammar and arithmetic ; so that a broad and sub- 
stantial foundation shall be laid for future advancement, if the cir- 
cumstances and inclination of the individual shall favour it. 

We shall not be understood as denying that instruction of various 
and much higher grades than the daily public school supplies, should 
be easy of access to all who are disposed to seek it, but we maintain 
that this should be the natural outgrowth of the public school, and 
should be sustained by other means than a general public tax.* The 

* In confirmation of these views we give the substance of a debate in the popular 
branch of the City Councils of Philadelphia, January 25, 1866. We have excluded 
from the range of our discussion the school systems of cities and large towns, but 
that our principle had staunch support even when applied there, strengthens our con- 
fidence in its soundness in respect to rural districts. 

The cjuestion was on tlie amount appropriated to the Controllers of the public 
schools of the First District for 1866 ($887,811 9T). The first motion was to 
strike out items referring to the boys' and girls' high school, yeas 15, nays 26. Then 
came a motion to strike out the appropriation to the boys' high school. The mover 
believed " that a majority of the citizens were in favour of abolishing the school. We 
tax the people to give them an equal system of education, but only about four per 
cent, of the pupils can be educated in the high school. Of those educated there, at 
least seventy per cent, were drones upon the community. He was in favour of en- 
couraging the grammar schools, by raising the standard of education." 

Another member believed " the institution had done a great amount of good. 
Many of the young men educated at the high school had become distinguished in 
many walks of life. Many years ago we had to obtain teachers from other States, 
but now our high schools give us teachers that do a credit to the city." 

Upon being asked to name some of them, he replied " that he came from one of 
the outside wards, and was not very well acquainted with the teachers, but he could 
name at least a dozen that would not have been teachers but for the high school." 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 25 

income from that source should be restricted to the thorough ac- 
complishment of the preliminary work. Why should we not educate 
machinists, engineers or farmers at the public charge as well as 
bookkeepers and bank clerks ? 

Many a man has lived and died a blacksmith or a shoemaker, 
who, if he had been pushed or led onward, might have made a 
learned lawyer, a useful minister, or a skilful physician. But who 
knows, on the other hand, how many lawyers, ministers and doctors 
would have been more usefully and creditably employed in handling 
an awl or wielding a sledge than in dealing with law, physic, or 
divinity ? We must not be told of prodigies of genius who have 
emerged from poverty and obscurity and risen to the heights of 
renown — of Burns reading at the plough tail ; Fei'gusson drawing a 
map of the heavens on the hill-side ; Grifford working his problems 
with his shoemaker's awl on a bit of leather, or Watt drawing dia- 
grams on the floor with a piece of chalk. The^/ disclosed their claim to 
special attention before they received it. The qualities of the plant 
were ascertained before it was taken into the conservatory. As no 

One member said "the high school costs a great deal more than it should for 
the benefit derived from it. He was in favour of raising the standard of education in 
the grammar schools, and abolishing the high schools." 

Another insisted " that we should compel every child to attend school until a cer- 
tain age. He thought the $27,000 asked for the high school would be of more ser- 
vice if appropi'iated to educate those who now never go to school. The citj should 
give a fair English education and nothing else."' 

One was " in favour of education, but he doubted the propriety of maintaining a 
college out of the money of the taxpayers. A good English education is all that 
can be expected from the public schools." 

Another said " that the education in the public schools was becoming so superior 
to that obtained in the private schools, that the rich were monopolizing the schools 
and keeping out the poor." 

And still another said " the high school only gave the boys a smattering of learn- 
ing, while it failed in giving them an education of a practical character. He was in 
favour of abolishing the high school, because the grammar schools would then be 
fostered, and the system of cramming a few pupils to get them in the high school 
done away with." 

The motion to strike out was negatived, 25 to 17. 

There had been an earnest appeal made by the teachers of the public schools 
for an increase of salary, and now came a proposition which touched the most sen- 
sitive nerve in the body politic, and the disposal of which sharpens the point of the 
preceding debate. 

A member moved to add " 25 per cent, to the salaries of the teachers." Not 
agreed to — yeas 12, nays 27 ! 



26 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 

obstacle can repress such zeal for knowledge, if it is in them, so no 
external influence or apparatus could inspire it, if it is Avanting. 

We are well pleased to see the organization of schools for prac- 
tical science, the mechanic arts and general literature for either 
sex, all well supplied with a full corps of teachers and professors 
of repute. The multiplication and ample endoAvment of classical, 
polj'technic and commercial colleges of various grades, and especially 
the recent princely private liberality by which such institutions as 
Vassar College at Poughkeepsie, N. Y., and Lehigh University at 
Bethlehem, Penna., have been brought into existence, afford abund- 
ant opportunities to prosecute almost any branch of science for 
which one has a taste, and that too at a very inconsiderable expense. 
It must be a source of unfeigned gratification to every true Ameri- 
can, NOW that the avenues to knowledge of the highest grade are 
open to every class and colour, that in most of our colleges and 
training schools for the professions, there is provision for the gratui- 
tous education of promising young men who have not the means 
to pay their expenses ; and various voluntary associations arc formed 
to defray such charges where other means fail. So that, in fact, the 
real educational wants of the country, in these higher grades, would 
be well supplied without the elaborate and expensive machinery of 
high and normal schools sustained at the public charge ; and there 
is no principle sounder and moi;e practical, touching the functions 
of government, whether civil or domestic, than that it should not 
do for people what people can and should do for themselves. 

So far as elementary teaching is concerned, school children must 
be treated very much alike, though a wise educator, Avho detects 
even in a young child a predominant inclination towards any par- 
ticular pursuit or science, will not fail to regard it. The instances 
in which such a taste for mechanics or the fine arts has been re- 
vealed in the first five or six years of life are numerous and familiar. 
A fondness for tools, for the sea, for natural scenery, for minute 
investigation should never be slighted, but should be the teacher's 
guide in the training of his pupils. It is the conviction that the 
interests of this advanced class of schools has overshadoAved and to 
a great extent absorbed those which it is the supreme duty of the 
commonAVoalth to nourish and protect, and not any unfriendliness 
towards them, that prompts the present inquiry. In the public 
schools we have been both pupil and teacher. We have served in 



IN TtlE UNITED STATES. 27 

various capacities in their direction and oversight, and have great 
confidence in them, if properly sustained and conducted, to educate 
the people of successive generations up to the required point. And 
we disclaim any desire to abate in the slighest degree the interest 
that is felt in the higher grades of schools. We have no controversy 
with the friends and advocates of the largest liberality in dealing 
with the whole subject of popular education. Let the superstructure 
have whatever magnitude and fashion it may, — our eyes are just now 
fixed on the foundation. Our fear (we may almost say our belief) 
is, that through neglect of this and the desire to make a hasty and 
imposing display in school architecture (material and metaphorical) 
we shall find sooner or later that even if we have a reading,'^ we 
shall not have an educated people. It cannot be denied that great 
advances have been made in the methods of teaching; many intricate 
sciences have been simplified, and improvements are seen in the 
construction and use of text books; but all this avails little so long 
as the hundreds of thousands of country, road-side schools are not 
Avorking out the true end of their organization ; nor fulfilling the 
reasonable expectations of the community. What that end is we 
suppose to be well understood. It is answered only by the appro- 
priate culture of all the faculties and gifts of our nature, by bring- 
ing out in strength and harmony the elements of a child's character, 
and preparing each individual for his or her duty, not only as a 
member of the human brotherhood, but as a subject of God's moral 
government. We do not say that the daily public school is to 
COMPLETE such a grand work, but, in our country it is certainly 
the chief or most ostensible agency in doing whatever is done to- 
wards it. If it contents itself with imparting a superficial and 
fragmentary knowledge of the rudiments of learning ; disregards 
the» personal habits and manners of the pupils ; establishes no con- 
trolling principles of action, and feels itself in no sense bound to 
care for the moral and spiritual, nor even the social and civil obliga- 
tions of the children in attendance, we should feel no great re- 
luctance to see it exchanged for the old parochial system of Scot- 

* "How few, even of those who have enjoyed the advantages of the most ad- 
vanced education, are graceful and impressive readers ! It behooves the parents and 
friends of the young to require that, while the more attractive and splendid subjects 
of study are duly taught, the less imposing but no less essential arts and accomplish- 
ments shall not be neglected." — Correspondence of English Journal of Educatian for 
December, 1864. . 



^O THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 

land, or the present govcrnment-grant-and-inspection system of 
England. It never can fit a generation of boys and girls to act 
well their part as American men and women. 

In this elementary process nothing should be omitted which is 
requisite to make the work complete. We should insist on the best 
schoolhouses that could be constructed — not the most expensive, but 
the best we mean for the purpose, regarding health, comfort, at- 
tractiveness and adaptation to the wants of the pupils. We should 
require the most eligible sites, w^ith ample space for play ground, 
out-buildings, &c. We should ask that the furniture might be 
suitable and substantial, not costly but in good taste and fitted to 
make the apartment at least as agreeable as the best room in the best 
home that any child in the school has left behind. Then would come 
a call for skilful women and men, fitted in intellect, in purity of mo- 
tive, patience and warm sympathy, to enter these little sanctuaries 
of active, impressible, immortal beings, and draw out their minds 
towards good learning and their hearts towards godly living. Here 
should be found permanent employment for such as are qualified for 
so high a vocation, and the remuneration should be such as to pre- 
clude temptation from other quarters. The way being thus pre- 
pared, all children of the State who are of proper age, and not 
otherwise and better taught, should be required to attend for a 
sufficient period to receive the needful instruction. For it should 
be remembered that the obligation of the State to provide means 
of educating all the children, implies a corresponding obligation on 
the part of all the children to give their attendance.* The con- 
tract between the citizen and the government is that if the former 
pays the tax to support the schools, the latter shall see to it that 
all the children avail themselves of the opportunity.! 

* It is very doubtful whether more than three out of every seven children' of 
proper age, are ever at one time in regular attendance at the common schools of 
the United States. 

t It is worthy of note that in his late letter to the minister of public instruction, 
the (so called) Emperor of ^lexico says, " As a leading principle of your measures 
take this : that education should be accessible to all, and in so far at least as 
elementary education is concerned, gratuitous and obligatory." Except in four can- 
tons, school education in Switzerland is compulsory. In the Canton of Berne, recruits 
are required to read, to write a letter, to draw up a report, and to answer any or- 
dinary examination in arithmetic ; and if the examination is not satisfactory, they 
must attend the barrack school. Not more than from three to five per cent, fail to 
pass. 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 29 

If sites, houses, books and teachers were what they ought to be, 
there would be little need of compulsion to secure the children's 
attendance. Lady Jane Grey tells us that her schoolmaster made 
the acquisition of knowledge so enticing and pleasant to her that 
she was always eager to escape from her parents and companions 
to the society of her old teacher. So that she learned from the 
mere pleasure of learning. 

We do not suppose little children will be bewitched to get to 
school by the process usually adopted to instruct them when there. 
We fancy we see them on a bright summer's day arrayed before 
"the mysterious engine" of their mental training. From dawn to 
eve, as one says, they are committing to memory all words that end 
in och, as coch, hnoch, block, roch, stock, smock, flock. In a few 
weeks they will give undivided attention to words ending in dom^ 
as kingdom, wisdom and beadledom. In due time their active and 
inquisitive minds will be turned to words ending in itioii, as deglu- 
tition, superstition, perdition, &c. ; and afterwards to words in 
ation as trituration, botheration, &c. How many generations of 
boys and girls have been "put through" such a senseless round as 
this by those who were employed and paid as teachers ! Surely we 
may say, "These are they that are not born school teachers, but 
are made school teachers of men." 

However it may be with children, we can scarcely expect that 
parents will feel much interest in their schooling so long as they 
perceive no special advantage resulting from it. Whe.n it is made 
evident to them that they suffer serious disability from the failure 
to obtain what the public school offers to confer, then they will 
change both mind and manner. Hence it might be desirable were 
it practicable to make the registry of a boy's name in some public 
school, and his regular attendance for a given period, a pre -requi- 
site to his enrolment as a voter upon coming of age.* 

Before entering upon the investigation of our main subject, there 
are three topics on which we have something to say ; for although 
they are introduced and briefly commented on, here and there, in 
the progress of the discussion, they are entitled to specific notice. 
They are: 

* The thoroughness of instruction in reading, spelling, writing and arithmetic in 
the public schools of England, has been wonderfullj' increased of late, by making the 
amount of grant from the government depend upon it. 



30 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 

I. Normal schools and their results as bearing on the interests of 
public schools. 

II. Text books — their uses and abuses — and 

III. The facilities of advanced education. 

I. The theory of normal schools is sound enough, but their real 
value as an agency for the good of the public schools is to be tested 
by Avhat they do for them. If they turn out such an improved 
corps of teachers as could not otherwise be had, whose labours and 
a cquisitions are pledged permanently to the service of these schools, 
it is a wise and economical employment of the public money to 
maintain them for this Avork. Otherwise it is a misuse of the money, 
and the tax imposed to raise it is unjust and unreasonable. Nor- 
mal schools to qualify teachers for the proper work of our public 
schools, need not be very expensively endowed, nor would they re- 
quire learned professors. We might with equal propriety sustain 
medical schools and theological seminaries at the public charge as 
schools to fit teachers for their profession, if the daily public schools 
have not the advantage of their training. The same link that con- 
nects the public money-chest with a normal school, should connect 
the teachers that are educated there with the daily public schools, — 
by which we always mean the schools which provide the elementary 
instruction required hy law. 

As to their general influence, normal schools have doubtless done 
good by elevating the standard of teaching, and here and there they 
have probably developed teaching skill which might otherwise have 
lain dormant (though no general assertions on this subject would be 
conclusive) ; but, on the other hand, have they not forced up into 
the sphere of teachers many that have proved neither helps nor or- 
naments to it ? High schools (to which we shall refer soon again) 
have doubtless done good in the same, way, and may have fitted 
boys and girls for positions they would not otherwise have occupied; 
but have the}'' not made as many or more dissatisfied with positions 
which they suitably and usefully occupied ? 

It admits of question whether the ranks of teachers (religious as 
Avell as secular) have not been burdened with incompetent and of 
course unsuccessful workers, in part because of the persuasives and 
facilities presented to young persons to turn their minds in that di- 
rection. If the public offer a training school, or if Christian people 
open a theological seminary, and by their terras make the way into 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 31 

the profession of teaching or preaching plain and easy, while the 
mercantile, legal and medical professions must be entered by a 
narrower and straighter path, should we not naturally expect more 
incompetency and failure in the former professions than in the 
latter ?* 

We yield to no one in the importance to be attached to the ed- 
ucation of a teacher for his work. We enter heartily into the 
quaint, and still most just lament of the schoolmasterf of Queen 
Elizabeth's day : 

It is a pity that commonly more care is had, and that among 
very wise men, to find out rather ; a cunning man for their horse 
than a cunning man for their children. To the one they will gladly 
give a stipend of 200 crowns by the year, and loath to offer the 
olher 200 shillings. God, that sitteth in heaven, laugheth their 
choice to scorn, and rewardeth their liberality as it should be, for 
he suffereth them to have tame and well ordered horses, but wild 
and unfortunate children. 

Let it be observed that the complaint of this ancient schoolmaster 
is, not that competent teachers were lacking, but that those who 
needed them were too stupid or stingy to employ and pay them. 
Have normal schools infused a more comprehensive and liberal 
spirit into our communities generally ? The facts and comments 
we shall present in this discussion will show. 

Are we in error in supposing that comparatively few of the pupils 
of our normal schools expect to give their life to the service of the 
boys and girls that are gathered into our public school-houses ? Do 
not many, if not most of them, enrol themselves as pupils with a view 
to temporary employment with the laudable purpose, perhaps, of 
obtaining means to pursue professional studies ? But '' of all men 
who are unfitted, for the work of education — most of all are they 
unfitted who enter it in early years, with the fixed determination 

* A fond father placed his boy with a great artist, that he might become an his- 
torical painter. The wishes of the father were not seconded by the taste or capacity 
of the son, and the poor lad was found crying bitterly in the studio over his smeared 
and clumsy drawings. "What is the matter, my dear fellow?" said the artist. The 
kind question touched the boy, and he could no longer conceal his feelings. "Boo, 
boo, boo," he cried, with a burst of tears and ingenuousness, " pa thinks I can draw, 
but I wants to be a butcher!' His taste was not for portraying the human face 
divine, or scenes of historic interest, but for killing beeves and cutting up mutton 
chops. 

f Roger Ascham, Latin Secretary to the Queen, 1560. 



32 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 

to pass from it to something more lucrative and more honourable 
in their eyes."* 

If Ave are to have good teachers, they must be such, not only 
by instruction, but by experience, by thought, by observation (we 
might almost say), by instinct, that they may know the best methods 
of getting at the human mind in its immaturity, and drawing out 
and exercising its faculties healthfully and evenly. And they must 
enter the profession with a resolution to remain in it, in order to 
realize its nobility and its inestimable importance. 

Who supposes that the young gentlemen and ladies, accustomed 
for two or three years to the spacious halls, the airy lecture rooms, 
the extensive grounds and the literary atmosphere of a State nor- 
mal school, are to make their way thence down to those close^ 
dingy, narrow pens, with their bare floors and walls, their rickety 
benches and forlorn externals; there to receive, control and instruct 
two or three scores of children six hours a day, for the pittance 
of $15, $20, or even $30 per month ? 

Is not this a just and pertinent inquiry, when we are looking at 
the bearing of the normal school systems, on the interests of the 
daily public school ? 

To illustrate our position we may be permitted to cite the case 
of New Jersey. It has a superior normal school which has been 
"in successful operation" for ten years, and it is said that its "in- 
fluence upon the public schools of the State has been widely felt 
and productive of the best results. "f The same authority which 
gives this high credit to the normal school tells us, in the same 
breath, that the schools are left to the management of the teachers 
engaged in them, and "in a majority of schools in the rural dis- 
tricts they are young and inexperienced, and do not, when engaging 
in the work, carry with them sufficient professional knowledge to 
enable them to decide upon and put in practice those regulations 
upon which the life of the school depends." 

The burden of the complaint of the superintendent, in this so 
recent a report, is the absence of proper local supervision. He 
thinks that were proper authority vested in local officers its ex- 
ercise would secure a corps of active and capable teachers, and this 
would be felt in the communities as well as in the schools ; and 

* English Journal of Education, May, 1805. 

f Annual Report of Superintendent of Public Scliools, 18G4, p. 28. 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 33 

thus better buildings, better attendance, and greater uniformity and 
efficiency would follow ; — most true and Aveighty words. He "does 
not advocate the strengthening and expanding of the school system 
for the purpose of enabling the pupils of the public schools to make 
more extended acquisitions in the sciences, but rather that the 
course of study in these schools may be more in harmony with the 
wants of the children attending them ;" — a most judicious and 
sensible distinction. But how is this local authority to produce 
such desirable results? Let one of the town superintendents of 
Burlington answer : 

One can judge how unpleasant it is for the school superintendent 
when young men and young women, with fine feathers and good 
recommendations from some of our best schools, yes, and I am 
sorry to say, from our Normal School too, are brought to the super- 
intendent to get their license, and when asked a few simple questions 
by him in geography or arithmetic they cannot answer them, but in 
place of answering them, they will hand you a piece of paper, saying 
that Professor Brown, or Professor Smith, or Professor somebody 
else says that they think from their good scholarship, &c., theyAvill 
make good teachers. But I have had to inform more than one that 
I did not care anything about Professor Brown or Smith, that I did 
not want to know what they had done, but what they could do now ; 
and it was but a few days ago that I had to reject one on that ac- 
count. She came with a good recommendation -but without an ed- 
ucation, and she had so much confidence in her recommendation 
that she came the second time, and insisted that if I would license 
her that she would give satisfaction to the district, and yet she 
could not answer one question that I asked her. I do believe that 
this is the great cause why our schools are not in a better condition 
than they are. 

We do not suppose normal schools can create a public sentiment 
that shall insist on the best of teachers, pay them the highest of 
salaries, and assure them of the greatest honour and sympathy 
from society. But if the public sentiment, the salary, and the hon- 
our and sympathy are wanting, is not the normal school out of 
place at present, at least so far as any material advantage to the 
public schools is concerned ? It may be very useful in qualifying 
men and women for obtaining a livelihood as teachers, but if it does 
not contribute directly and sensibly to the improvement, elevation 
and extension of the village and neighbourhood schools, to which the 
millions resort for most of the knowledge of letters that they ever 



34 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 

obtain, is it entitled to the importance attached to it in reports and 
popular estimation, as part of the machinery of our public schools? 
We would not have them abolished. We would not have their 
number diminished. We would only have them maintained, as are 
schools for the profession of medicine, law and theology, by private 
beneficence, or by the fees of those who profit by their advantages. 

II. Text-Books. — We are not about to launch a philippic against 
school-book makers, publishers and sellers. They have their craft 
and must get their living, — honestly if they can. Their's are among 
the "many" books of the making of which the wisest of men says 
" there is no end." Our concern is rather with the use that is made of 
them, which we regard as very absurd and reprehensible. To show 
this it might almost sufiice to give the bare definition of the term, as 
thus : " A text-book is a classic author, written or printed, with 
wide spaces between the lines to give room for the pupil to note 
the observations and interpretations of the teacher or professor." 
In appearance it would resemble the draft of a bill in the Legisla- 
ture, with a wide margin and broad intervals between the lines to 
insert amendments, &c. The term is also applied to books in which 
the leading principles of a science are stated in proper order for 
the help of the student. 

We submit that from neither definition should we infer that the 
text-book is the teacher s implement. His task is to present to the 
minds of his disciples, from his oivn ample store, the principles or 
maxims which he would have them receive ; while their duty is to 
note such leading thoughts or terms as will aid them in recalling 
and reflecting upon the subject. To ascertain the depth and accu- 
racy of the impression made by the exercise, he frames interroga- 
tories to embrace the points he has made in teaching, and so ascer- 
tains if the principle and its application are comprehended. This is 
obviously a simple and rational view of what should be the ordinary 
exercise of a school or lecture room. But no one can examine the 
school-books in common use, without perceiving at once that they 
regard the teacher as acting a very subordinate |)art in the school- 
drama. In a word, the book is the teacher and of course the 
teacher is the book. 

We take up, at random, on the counter of a school-book book- 
seller, an approved text-book on physiology, for example. It has 
page after page of the warmest commendations from presidents, pro- 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 35 

fessors and teachers, from the august LL. D.'s, to the humble A.M.'s 
or B.A.'s. We open it, and the first sentence reads as follows : 

All bodies in which evidence of life has been observed, possess 
certain parts or organs which are essential to the existence of the 
individual. A plant or an animal exists by means of its appropri- 
ate organs ; and the matter of which they are composed is therefore 
called organized or organic matter. 

There is no sort of objection to this as the shape which this 
physiological truth takes in the mind of a teacher. If he has judg- 
ment and tact, he will readily adapt the idea embodied in it, to the 
capacities and attainments of his, pupils. But, alas ! it is for the 
pupil to take it just as it is, and make what he can of it. He is 
told, to be sure, on the same page, what questions will grow out of 
this exhausting sentence. Among them are these : 

" What are essential to the existence of all living bodies ? What 
is the matter of which such bodies are composed, called ?" It 
AYOuld be strange if in a class of ten or fifteen ordinarily bright 
boys or girls, some would not be able to contrive an answer to both 
questions, while others are quite as likely to fail ; but whatever 
their luck, they must pass on to the next section and to other ques- 
tions, and so through the book. 

Now suppose we take up the true idea of a text-book, and im- 
agine the pupil to have had placed before his mind this general 
principle in physiology. "All living bodies have parts or organs, 
and hence are called organized bodies." The teacher is supposed 
to be in a sufficient degree familiar with the science of which 
this is a fundamental principle, to be capable of elucidating it in a 
way adapted to the capacities of the class. His task is to put each 
of them in possession of the true idea of an organized or organic, 
in contradistinction to an unorganized or inorganic, body. They 
may know that there is an organ in the church and an organ in the 
street. A literary club has just been organized. The meeting was 
organized by the election of Mr. Jones to the chair, and the chair- 
man thereupon said, he should expect to be sustained as the organ 
of the meeting. The doctor said that neighbour Smith died of 
an organic disease. He asks, then, if all bodies composed of parts 
are organic. This table has parts, legs, castors, a top, a drawer, 
sides, hinges, — is it therefore an organized body ? He requires 
them to separate the objects in the room into two classes — each 



36 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 

pupil mentioning one of each class. Of course the teacher, in the 
progress of this discussion, varies his illustrations to suit the men- 
tal condition of individual pupils. Can any number or amplifica- 
tion of printed questions do this ? Is it not perfectly obvious that 
the book is obtruded offensively and needlessly upon the class, to 
do what is tTie appropriate work of the teacher ? 

The great purpose of modern school-book makers seems to be to 
save the labour of teachers. Hence they leave scarcely an open- 
ing for his ingenuity (if he has any) to exercise itself in his proper 
sphere. Both what he shall ask and what his pupils shall answer, 
are duly prescribed in the book.. 

In one of the latest and most approved of modern elementary 
grammars, we find the following : " What do you use when you 
want to speak your thoughts?" The most natural and pertinent 
answer Avould be, " JMy tongue, sir." But if this answer were 
given, the pupil would be reproved, for the answer in the book is, 
''Words." Of course then when the question occurs, "What are 
words?" the answer would necessarily be, "What Ave use Avhen we 
Avant to s})eak our thoughts." By no means. The book says, " A 
word is what is spoken or written as the sign of an idea." Then 
words are what Ave use to Avrite or speak our thoughts? Not ex- 
actly, for thoughts or ideas may be expressed by signs as well as 
by words. Then Avords must be written or spoken signs of ideas ? 
"But Avhat is an idea?" is asked by some quickwitted boy or girl, 
to the utter confusion of the teacher, because the book-maker did 
not think that that question would be asked, and therefore he has 
not prescribed the answer ! We are not censuring the crutch- 
makers. We are only admiring their skill in imposing them upon 
persons whose limbs are sound, but who are too lazy to use them. 

A very cursory examination of some of these dummies will 
show hoAV imperfect they are as substitutes for the living teacher. 
We have before us a series of the most attractive text-books (as 
they are called), in geography. We open one entitled " First 
Steps." The first question is, 

" What is the earth ?" Ans. " The earth is the planet on which 
Ave live." So far, so good. 

The second of the series is an attractive book in square form and 
profusely embellished with pictures. It is called the "Primary 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 37 

Geography," and is supposed to be used a year or Iayo later in life 
than " First Steps." The first question here is, 

"What is the planet on which we live called?" Ans. " It is 
called the earth," — not much in advance of "First Steps." 

Then comes the "High School Geography," 400 pages, 12mo., 
accompanied by an expensive atlas and intended for the most ad- 
vanced classes. And here again the first question we meet is, 

"What is the earth?" A71S. " The earth is the planet in the 
solar system which we inhabit ;" leaving the pupil in painful doubt 
whether he inhabits the earth or the solar system ! 

We will add a question which is neither geographical nor arith- 
metical, but which we think very pertinent in this connection. 
How long would it take a stalk of grain to come to maturity, if 
it should grow no faster than the mind of a school-boy would ad- 
vance in the science of geography, by these three questions at 
three successive periods of his school life, a twelvemonth apart ? 

The burden of our complaint is, that instead of leaving upon the 
teacher, where it belongs, the task of framing questions and adapt- 
ing them to the constantly shifting attitudes of the pupil's mind, 
it is all mechanically arranged, so that the teacher's duty is dis- 
charged when he has done what his teacher — the author — tells him 
to do.* 

Now we contend that all the legitimate purposes of what are 
called text-books would be served in schools of all grades by a 
series of brief hand-books or manuals (which would occupy a fifth 
or perhaps not more than an eighth part of the bulk of those now 
in use, and be proportionably less in cost), containing the princi- 
ples or outlines of a science, which are to be so explained and il- 
lustrated by the living teacher, as that the pupil cannot fail, with 
ordinary capacity and attention, to understand them and their ap- 
plication to the business of life. 

Thus while the latter is required to give heed to what is taught 
and to store and arrange his knowledge so that it shall be available 
in time of need, the former shall be responsible for adapting his 

* JD'Aroj W. Thompson, in his " Day-dreams of a Schoolmaster," speaks of books 
that "may help aa incompetent master over an occasional stile, but can only ener- 
vate a pupil's brain, and transfer coin from the pocket of an exasperated parent to 
the pocket of an undeserving publisher." He adds that a good Latin grammar might 
be limited to 24 pages, and sold for sixpence. 
4 



OO THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 

instruction in form, manner and measure to the condition of his 
class, and for ascertaining whether it is comprehended and ready 
for use. 

It is something in favour of such a reformation that it would 
greatly reduce the expenses of our public schools. Somebody pays 
not less than five or six millions of dollars, at the very lowest esti- 
mate, every year for school-books, nine-tenths of which go to con- 
vert the teacher into an automaton. We are told by one who had 
the best possible opportunities to know that $20,000 is within the 
mark for one year's expenses to introduce a geography. He adds, 
concerning one set of geographies, that during the first five years 
the outlay in advertising and pushing was so great that the firm 
were very anxious to sell the books at cost. They looked upon it 
as a very bad speculation. Yet they afterwards realized on those 
same books a profit of ffli/ thousand dollars a year ! Who paid it ?* 

* "While these sheets are passing through the press, there comes into our hands 
a scrap of manuscript which is at least a quarter of a century old, and can therefore 
have no relation, to any series of school-books now in circulation. It is so pertinent 
to our purpose that we transcribe it : 

A schoolmaster is tired of drudgery, and makes up his mind to become a pub- 
lisher. It is as easy a matter to make a book as to make a shoe. It is in itself a 
mere mechanical operation. 

We start with a title — '' The Child's Help in his first effort to learn." By James 
Smith, A.JI. That sounds well for a foundation. Then comes the alphabet, A, B, 
C, ab, abs, words of one syllable, readings in one syllable, then in two, three, &c., 
for 50, T5 or 100 pages, all adorned with a large number of pictures according 
to the author's taste, and we thus have "Smith s Child's Help." 

Mr. Smith is the Doctor Smith or Professor (as some called him), who taught the 
town school for eleven winters. He goes to the School Committee, and to Judge 
Jones, and to Rev. Mr. Smith (the same name but no relation), favours them 
each Avith a copy of his new book, and obtains their signatures to a certificate as 
follows : 

" We take great pleasure in certifying, that Mr. Smith, the author of 'The Child's 
Help,' has been long known to us as a very successful teacher, and we have no 
doubt that the book he has prepared will be found to be, what its title imports, a 
real ' Child's Help.' " 

The book is approved by the committee, and introduced into the schoolsof that town 
to begin with. A flaming advertisement comes out. A copy is sent to the printer of 
the county paper, and Doctor Dai't (who is a friend of Dr. Smith, and married Dr. 
Smith's wife's cousin, and is a friend of the editor of the county paper also), writes a 
puff, and by and by the "Child's Help" is called for quite extensively beyond the town. 
Dr. Smith is so much encouraged, that he proceeds in like manner and compiles a 
series of books on the same plan, and then introduces to the favourable regard of the 
public, "Smith's Series of Elementary School Books." He now goes to some exten- 
sive city publisher, shows the evidence of his success and the reputation he has ac- 
quired by his first effort, and proposes to him to " get out" the series, while he will 
go abroad with certificates, advertisements, &c., and open the way for their general 
circulation. Soon "Popular School Books — Siniih's Ekvienlar)/ Series," meeis the 
eye in some conspicuous partof whatever newspaper we open, far and near, and un- 
less the bookseller fails or quarrels with the author, or the golden egg is in some 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 39 

The teacher should rely as little as possible upon the text-book 
(sajs a late writer on the subject) ; as much as possible upon his own 
oral expositions. Grammar cannot be properly taught without full 
and often elaborate explanations, and these come far more eflFec- 
tively from the living voice than from the dull and uninviting page 
of a grammar book. The teacher should never alloAV the book to 
supersede him, or exchange the function of an educator for that or 
a hearer of lessons. The skilful teacher may conduct his pupils 
through all the intricacies of grammar Avithout putting any book 
into their hands but a set of exercises.* 

Another and by no means inconsiderable advantage would result 
from thus requiring the teacher to put himself, rather than a book, 
into sympathy with the pupil. The work of the school would then 
be confined to the school-room. We should no longer see children 
lugging home their satchels or strapped packages of books, nor 
would their domestic duties or enjoyments be curtailed by home 
lessons. Would that our public schools could thus become attract- 
ive and complete educators in the sphere they are designed to oc- 
cupy, and not mere stupid passage ways to wider provinces of 
learning ! Would that Ave could have good writers, spellers, readers 
and accountants, though authors, orators and professional men 
might be fcAver and farther betAveen. 

That Ave do not exaggerate this evil will be obvious to any one 
Avho will examine public documents. It is even considered by some 
as the most serious drawback upon the usefulness of the schools that 
comes under notice. It needs no laboured argument to show that 
the amount of lost time, the useless expenditure of money, the 
little progress of the children, and the low standing of the schools, 
compared Avitli what they might be, even with the same amount of 
labour and money, are the necessary results of this variety of 
books. f 

other Avay broken, " Smith's Elementary Series" is for years the source of regular 
and abundant profit to all concerned. 

Thus it comes to pass that parents and guardians or the public treasury, or both, are 
obliged to shoulder the burden of all experiments of teachers, publishers and book- 
sellers, and hence the vast accumulation of discarded school-books stored away on 
upper shelves or in dark closets; — so vast that it may be safe to say, that if the 
money that has been expended for them were refunded, it would amply support the 
public schools of the largest State in the Union for a quarter of a century to come. 

^ English Journal of Education, December, 1865. 

J Eleventh Annual Report of New York Schools, 104, 127. 



40 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 

t 

We come back then to the plain little country school-house. That' 
,it is not what it should be, all aclvnowlcdge. Will the people make 
it better ? Not till they see the need and the good of it as plainly 
as they see the effect of sun and shower on their fields and meadows. 
We need a very different class of men and women for teachers. 
Will the normal school give them to us ? No more than it will 
give us poets or painters. It Avill help the very few who have a 
love and aptness for teaching, and desire to follow it as a profession. 
If Ave have good teachers, Avill we pay them ? — for not without a 
higher rate of compensation can we expect them. Shall we risk a 
higher school tax for this purpose ? The people will not bear it. 
Already their indifference to school sites and buildings, to methods 
of teaching and regularity of attendance, is too obvious to be mis- 
taken. Let us try then to give them better schools for the same 
or even less money. Let the income of our fund and tax be ex- 
pended for the maintenance of the daily public school exclusively, 
leaving high and normal schools to be sustained by those who can 
share directly in their advantages. Let all our schools be commit- 
ted to competent teachers, and as far as practicable to females, 
and restrict the teaching to what is required by law. Let all 
the children be well taught in the six fundamental branches of an 
American boy's and girl's education : reading, Avriting, spelling, the 
rudiments of geography, arithmetic and the art of expressing their 
ideas with the tongue or pen ; and couple with all this a wholesome 
moral influence, reaching not only to the outward habits and man- 
ners, but to the conscience and heart ; and, with half our present 
expenditure, we should have far better schools, and the people 
would soon see the substantial advantage their children derive from 
their attendance and then they will become the willing and staunch 
supporters of the system. 

We must add our deep and well considered apprehension that if 
some great revolution is not effected in the management of our 
daily public schools, their insufiiciency to do Avhat is expected and 
required of them will soon be but too plainly revealed. We must 
never forget that a boy or girl in the United States holds a very 
different social position from one in Turkey, Italy, France, or even 
in Great Britain. Education among us (we mean elementary, pri- 
mary education) should brace up both mind and body to effort, to 
courage, to self-control. It should eradicate the germs of indolence. 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 41 

and of dependence on others for what one can do for himself. A 
school has been called the landing place from which we begin to 
ascend the stairs of life. There must be a previous exercise and 
invigoration of the muscles which the ascent will task. If the decay 
of a tree is first betrayed in the young fruit, must we not regard 
the absence of mental and bodily vigour in our boys and girls as 
tokens of national degeneracy?* If we grudge the money and 
labour that are required to form the basis of a substantial educa- 
tion, or expend them upon something beyond, above, or outside of 
this elementary process, we may indeed have wonderful develop- 
ments of learning and science, but the mass of the people will re- 
main in bondage to ignorance. " What will you charge to educate 
my son?" said the wealthy Athenian to a philosopher. He named 
a large sum. "Why," said the astonished father, "I can buy a 
slave for that sum." " Do it," was the reply, " and you will then 
have two !" Such is the genius of our government that every public 
interest is staked on the intelligence and virtue of the masses. 

Ignorance would be no less destructive to us than vice. The daily 
public or common school is our reliance for the general diffusion of 
the elements of knowledge. The preparatory work, out of which 
comes an enlightened, independent and virtuous generation, is sup- 
posed to be done there. But we fear such a supposition is, to a 
great extent, unwarranted. To show this, it is not needful to enter 
upon an elaborate investigation of rej)orts and statistics. It is 
enough to look at the requirements of the law and the spirit and man- 
ner in which they are met. Nor is it necessary to embrace in our 
inquiries all our States and Territories. Some of them are of too 
recent organization to have any settled system of schools, and 
others are just born into a new and untried life, and their institu- 

* What more indubitable evidence of this degeneracy can be asked than our cur- 
rent literature, that seeks and finds its chief market among those who have learned 
to read in our public schools ? Inquire what reading matter is in the hands of five- 
sixths of our people that occupy the middle sphere of society, between the learned 
and the ignorant, and shall we not find it to be, if not the newspaper, the flashy 
magazine or the dime novel ? Now and then a corner of the veil is lifted, and we 
exclaim with horror at the revelation which some public trial makes of deep social 
corruption. It is in the daily public school, if anywhere, that virtuous habits and 
principles and pure tastes are to be cultivated in the mass of the population. If 
the mind and heart are not well cared for there, they will be as " a garden whose walls 
and hedges being broken down, is all grown over with thorns, and nettles covering 
the face thereof." 



42 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 

tions must, for some years at least, remain in an inchoate state. 
Our end will be answered by a brief analysis of the legislation and 
its fruits in the four States which, in the amount expended on pub- 
lic schools, in the aggregate of children to be taught, and in the 
machinery to secure their instruction, may be said to be leading 
States. These are Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and Massa- 
chusetts. They probably embrace as large a variety of people^ and 
interests, and show as fair an average of wealth, virtue, intelligence, 
and patriotism as will be found in a like area on this continent, 
or on the globe. 

In these four States we have, in round numbers, two and a half 
millions of children under instruction, by sixty or seventy thou- 
sand teachers, at an annual cost of some nine or ten millions of 
dollars, or (say) $3 per head per annum. The ratio of teachers 
to pupils, and the ratio of expenditures to both, is, however, worthy 
of note. Without regarding fractions, we may say that Oliio fur- 
nishes one teacher to every thirty-four pupils, at an expense of $4 
for the year for each child. Pennsylvania allows one teacher to 
every forty-three pupils, at $3 75 for each child. Neiu York gives 
one teacher to every thirty-four pupils, at $3 each ; and Massa- 
chusetts one teacher to every twenty-j&ve pupils, at $8 each. 

After a general synopsis or abstract of the laws of each of these 
States, we will look cursorily at the territorial divisions ; the arrange- 
ments for the institution, superintendence, instruction and disci- 
pline of the schools ; the school-buildings and their sites, and the 
appendages of libraries, institutes, high schools, normal schools, 
(fee. In this survey Ave shall confine ourselves almost exclusively 
to those points which bear specially upon the interests of common 
neighhourliood schools, in distinction from those in cities and popu- 
lous towns ; and it will be remembered that our purpose is not so 
much to controvert opinions or criticise practices, as to excite in- 
quiry and reflection. 



IN THE UNITED STATES. — OHIO. 43 



THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL IN OHIO. 



SYNOPSIS OF THE SCHOOL LAWS OF OHIO. 

Districts. — Every township constitutes a school district, and the 
school districts (proper) are sub-districts. Each city and each in- 
corporated village, which, with the territory around it, contains 300 
inhabitants, forms a separate school district. 

Officers. — Each sub-district has three school directors, who elect 
one of their number to be clerk of the sub-district. The school 
directors in the sub-district are to manage the schools under the 
regulations of the township board, provide houses and fuel, employ 
and dismiss teachers, visit and examine schools at least twice during 
each term,* and make all other provision for the convenience and 
prosperity of the schools. A census is taken by the sub-district 
directors annually, in the month of September, of all resident, un- 
married jvhite and coloured youth (noticing their sex and colour 
separately), between 5 and 21. 

Toivnship Board. — The township Board of Education (as it is 
called) consists of the township clerk and that director of each 
sub-district who is appointed clerk. It is a corporate body, holding 
titles and custody of all school property, and it has the control and 
management of all high schools and coloured schools; providing 
buildings and employing teachers for the same, with power to dis- 
miss. It is' to prescribe rules for the government of all the public 
schools of the township, and provide schools for such as want to be 
taught in the German language. f It is also empowered to assign 
the limits to sub-districts and alter them. No district is to have 
less than 60 scholars unless under special provision. 

A school is to be established in every sub-district, of such grade 
as may be required. The township board prescribes studies, books, 
&c., and makes rules for using and preserving libraries. It is 

* This provision is, however, a dead letter, 
f A dead letter as to townships. 



44 THE DAILY PUELIC SCHOOL 

also to report annually to the county auditor, the number of chil- 
dren in the township between 5 and 21, number and grade of 
schools, number and pay of teachers, length of terms, number and 
condition of libraries, kinds of school books, expenditures, &c., &c. 
The teachers are required to report to the township board the num- 
ber of children admitted ; the average attendance, studies and text- 
books, and such other information as the school commissioner of 
the State may require. 

High Schools. — ToM'nship boards, as we have seen, are empowered 
to establish a higher grade of schools, to be known as high or 
central schools ; the probable cost of organizing the same and the 
rate of taxation to meet it, to be submitted to the qualified voters 
of the township, and the board must be governed by their vote and 
direction. 

Tax. — The township board determines, annually, by estimate, 
what amount is needed for schools and buildings, in addition to the 
appropriation from the State school fund (which is applied exclu- 
sively to the payment of teachers' wages), not exceeding three 
mills on the dollar of the taxable property of the township ; and 
is to certify the same to the county auditor, who is required 
to assess the tax. If the township board fail to make a sufficient 
estimate, the county commissioners may authorize an aidditional 
levy. Should a tax greater than three mills on the dollar, be neces- 
sary for schoolhouse purposes, an additional tax may be levied by 
the legal voters. 

Length of Sessions. — Schools must be sustained at least twenty- 
four weeks in each year, and^ in case the township board fails to 
provide adequate means, one year's appropriation from the school 
fund is thereby forfeited, and the board is held liable for the loss. 

Tax for City Schools. — Cities and villages can assess a school 
tax of four mills on the dollar, and a higher rate for schoolhouse 
purposes, by vote of electors. 

Coloured Schools. — Separate schools are to be organized for col- 
oured children, wherever twenty or more are enumerated. When 
less than twenty, their full share of the school funds must be, in 
some form, expended for their education. 

School Fund. — There is a very curious history connected with 
thf accumulation of this fund,* the avowed object of which is "to 
* See 3d edition of School Lnws, l,S(i2, pp. 40-02. 



IN THE UNITED STATES — OHIO. 45 

afford the advantage of a free education to all the youth of the 
State." One of the tributaries to the fund is an annual tax of a 
mill and three-tenths on every dollar of taxable property in the 
State. The fund is distributed by the State auditor to the several 
counties in proportion to its number of scholars, and by the county 
auditor to the townships according to their returns. It is the duty 
of the county auditor to make a report ot an annual return to the 
State school commissioner of the school statistics of his county, on 
which return the appropriation is based. There is also an irre- 
deemable school fund arising from the interest on school-land funds, 
amounting to upwards of $200,000 per annum. The entire fund of 
the State, for school purposes, yields annually $1,500,000. 

Board of Examiners. — To insure the exclusion of unworthy or 
incompetent teachers, a board of three examiners is appointed in 
each county by the judges of probate, to hold office two years, any 
two of whom have power to examine and certify the qualifications 
of teachers. Each applicant for a certificate pays a fee of fifty 
cents as a prerequisite to examination, and the certificate is valid 
only in that county, and there only for two years ; and may be 
revoked at any time on proof of incompetency or negligence. 
No teacher can be employed in any common school without a cer- 
tificate of his good moral character, and of an adequate knowledge 
of the theory and practice of teaching. 

Branches. — The branches which such examination embraces, are 
orthography, writing, reading, arithmetic, English grammar and 
geography. For a higher grade of teaching, a higher grade of cer- 
tificate is of course required. Most of the cities and other separate 
school districts have a local board of examiners. A State board 
of examiners is also appointed by the school commissioner, who 
grant State certificates to teachers of eminent professional expe- 
rience and ability, which are valid during the lifetime of the holder, 
unless revoked. 

Institutes. — The examination fees paid by applicants for certifi- 
cates, constitute a teachers' institute fund in the several counties, 
which can be appropriated to no other purpose, and is paid out of 
the county treasury on the petition of not less than forty teachers, 
who shall declare their intention to attend the institute. County 
commissioners hnve power to make an appropriation not exceeding 



4G THE DAILY rUBLIC SCHOOL 

f 100, -when one-half of the amount required has been raised by 
those who ask such appropriation. 

Commisi<ioner of Seliooh. — The commissioner of common schools, 
elected by the qualified voters of the State for three years, gives 
bonds and takes an oath. He is required to spend at least ten 
days in each judicial district, in visiting schools, superintending in- 
stitutes, conferring with teachers, lecturing, &c. He is also charged 
with the care and oversight of the school funds, and makes an an- 
nual report to the Legislature. 

City and Village Schools. — These are usually subject to special 
legislation, and boards can levy a local school tax of four mills on 
the dollar, a few of the largest cities excepted. 

CONDITION OF SCHOOLS. 

The cursory glance we have given at the legislative provisions 
for bringing all the children in Ohio, of suitable age, under in- 
struction, in comfortable houses, suitably furnished and supplied 
with competent teachers, proper books and intelligent supervision, 
prepares us to go among the schools, and taking the Annual Re- 
port of the Commissioner for 1864 as our guide, we shall see how 
far the grand end in view is accomplished. 

Statistics of the Schools. — The number of persons in the State 
between '5 and 21 years of age September, 1863, was 938,972. 
Of these more than two-thirds were enrolled in the public schools; 
and of those enrolled somewhat more than half attended at some 
period, for once or more during the year. In other words, the 
average daily attendance of the year was 57 per cent, of the 
number enrolled, but only about 42 per cent, of the number enumer- 
ated. If the whole number of children enrolled had attended on 
any one day, the average to each schoolhouse would have been 61. 
The actual average was about 34 to each school. The number of 
different persons employed as teachers in the course of the year 
was 20,658, or nearly double the number of schools. 

Looking at these figures merely we should not regard the exhibit 
as very flattering to the educational condition or prospects of the 
State, nor will the picture be much brightened by a closer investi- 
gation. 

AVe find 1,361 townships, each with its separate Board of Educa- 



IN THE UNITED STATES — OHIO. 47 

tion, acting under the general school law, and these are subdivided 
into 11,850 districts, each with a board of directors, with 12,000 
schoolhouses to provide and keep in order ; more than 20,000 
teachers to employ and oversee, to whose care, instruction and in- 
fluence nearly 700,000 children and youth are committed ; the • 
whole machinery involving an outlay of nearly two and three-fourths 
millions of dollars. 

If we reflect for a moment on the fulness and minuteness of the 
legislation, the precautions which are devised to secure qualified 
teachers, and the care which is taken to bring a school to the very 
doors of the people of every neighbourhood, what less could be ex- 
pected than a rapid and thorough instruction of all the children 
and youth of the State in useful learning, such as shall qualify 
them for the ordinary occupations of life in our country and times ? 
■ Popular JEstimation. — But there is an anterior inquiry of great 
force and pertinency. Is the disposition of the great body of the 
people in harmony with the school laws ? Are they eager to avail 
themselves of the privileges ofi'ered ? They may lay their tax of a 
cent upon every dollar of their property without grumbling ; they 
may meet and vote on all matters that require meeting and voting, 
and have a good time of it ; and they may look with a misty, in- 
definite respect upon the array of ofiicials, and the manifold in- 
volutions of the red tape that connects them together, but all this 
will not begin to compensate for the absence of a hearty good will 
towards the school ; of a discriminating appreciation of its value to 
them and their children, or of a disposition to co-operate actively in 
measures which look to its efficiency and gradual improvement. 
As a system it may have all other elements of success and grandeur, 
and yet if it fails to commend itself to the people, when and where 
the school is opened ; to awaken their sympathy and command their 
intelligent support, it will be grand chiefly on paper. It is only 
by their judicious co-operation that proper persons will be selected 
to carry out the beneficent purposes of the Legislature.* 

* " The people will sustain no better schools and have no better education than 
they personally see the need of." — Life of Horace Mann, p. 148. 

" Of all the difficulties which stand in the way of a national system of education, 
one of the most conspicuous and important is the want of a due appreciation on the 
part of the public of the real importance of the question." — Lord Advocate of Scot- 
land, at the meeting of Social Science Association in Glasgotv, ISGO.—N'orlh British 
Review, American Edition, May, 1861, p. 2G7. 



48 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 

In this connection, it is notewortliy that the number of schools 
was reduced from 15,152 in 1862, to 14,233 in 18G3, and to 
11,661 in 1864. Admitting (what one of the reports alleges) that 
the returns are inaccurate, and that some of the schools have been 
merged in others, "\ve can scarcely suppose the large decrease of 
nearly 3,500 in the three years can be so accounted for. As a 
confirmation of the fact just stated, it may be observed, that the 
number of pupils enrolled in 1864 was less by 55,495 than the 
number enrolled the previous year, though this is also regarded as 
in some measure the result of erroneous returns. But as a farther 
item of evidence in the same direction, it appears" that the average 
number of pupils in daily attendance (made up from the reports 
of teachers) was 44,470 less in 1864 than in 1863. There is an- 
other statement which bears upon the same topic ; we mean the 
school term, to which we shall refer presently. 

Drawbacks. — The choice of ^ub-district directors may fall on 
competent men, and it may not. We all know what strange in- 
fluences find their way into a popular election. Those who have 
no children to send to the school will be very unlikely to concern 
themselves with the choice of persons to take care of it, and others 
may be governed by considerations that have not the remotest 
bearing on the candidate's qualifications for the duties of the place. 
Indeed, in most of the neighbourhoods which constitute these sub- 
districts very few persons could probably be found capable of dis- 
charging, intelligently, such duties as are required of school directors ; 
and it would be an egregious mistake to suppose that the lot would 
generally fall on such persons, were they within reach, without some 
pains-taking to secure that end. We have known more than one 
instance in Avliich a school director has been chosen in a city dis- 
trict who could neither read intelligibly to himself nor to others, 
nor write his own name ; and if this first or foundation stone in the 
fabric of our public schools is defective or misplaced, what wonder 
that disaster or disappointment should sooner or later attend what 
is built thereon? 

A single sentence from the annual report before us is as signifi- 
cant and conclusive as a volume. " In 99 cases of every 100 not 
a school officer qualified to detect and authorized to correct the mis- 
chief" (of employing unqualified teachers) "ever enters the school- 
room of our country districts" (p. 34), The stress which the com- 



IN THE UNITED STATES — OHIO. 49 

niissioner's report lays on the importance of an intelligent local 
supervision is not misplaced. As an inspector, he must needs know 
what can and ought to be done in a school, and what tests are 
proper to determine results. But such men are rare and not always 
high in popular esteem. 

Some compensation for the defects of local officers is supposed to 
be found in the oversight of the county superintendents ; but ex- 
perience has shown that political and private influences too often 
succeed in introducing to that office also, persons incompetent both 
intellectually and morally, to perform its most common duties. If 
the judicious and intelligent men in a given locality, whether dis- 
trict, township or county, would give time and earnest heed to the 
subject, the schools might be protected in a good degree from the 
intrusion of unqualified supervisors. But the general indifference 
which we are lamenting allows the popular vote to drift as it will. 
Sinister influences work their way into the polls, as living springs 
into a bed of sand, and the office becomes a prize in a lottery open 
to all adventurers. To avoid this dilemma, some of the States vest 
the appointment of district directors in the township board ; but 
this only removes the evil a step back, for who shall vouch for their 
independence ? 

As a matter of fact it is stated that where the election of county 
superintendent has been in the hands of the township board, thus 
removing it from the closer proximity to the people, the advantage 
has been manifest at once. And yet one would think that in a 
matter affecting so vitally the well-being of their children, the more 
close the contact of the school officers with the individuals and 
families who are to enjoy the advantages of the school, the surer 
we should be to enlist their intelligent sympathy and co-operation. 
"There is no feature of our school system," says the report for 
1863, "so vital to its success as that which places at the door of 
every school-room in the State a board of examiners to determine 
who is worthy to enter there as a teacher and' guide of its youth." 
Yet the tendency of later legislation in several States has been 
rather to increase than lessen the distance between the school- 
room door and the examiners. 

Number of Teachers. — Assuming that the examiners have done 
their duty, let us turn for a moment to the masters and mistresses 
employed at their desks, and Ave find there are 7,882 of the former 



50 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 

and 12,826 of the latter, or 20,658 in all. And we further learn 
the interesting and important fact, that the percentage of female 
teachers has advanced in two years from 42 to 62. It must be 
conceded (the commissioner thinks), that in the great majority of 
the schools women make better teachers than men. " The better 
class of female teachers in our schools," he says, " are succeed- 
ing just as well and often better than the average of male teach- 
ers." And he cites the opinion of the commissioner of Rhode 
Island, that " they are succeeding in that State oftener than male 
teachers even in the management of turbulent boys, while in the 
formation of the manners and the cultivation of the morals and 
tastes of children, they are incomparably better teachers than men." 
If these things are so, it Avould be difficult to assign even a plausi- 
ble reason for denying or withholding from them equal or higher 
compensation. 

Qualifications and Compensation of Teachers. — To whatever au- 
thority the people look to determine who are fit to teach, it is due 
to applicants for employment, as well as to the public, that some 
general standard of qualifications should be prescribed, and it seems 
to be admitted, that, in fixing such a standard, reference should be 
had to the general state of education in a given community. Hence 
the examiners need to know somewhat of the locality in which the 
candidate is to be employed before they can determine what grade 
of qualifications in the teacher Avill meet its wants; — in other 
words, to have the knowledge which an intelligent, observing man, 
on the spot, is alone likely to have. That no uniformity of this 
kind exists in Ohio is apparent from the fact, that in ten counties 
4,455 persons applied for certificates, of whom 1,870 (or say tAvo 
of every five) were rejected, while in ten other counties, of 1,743 
applicants, only 47 (or say one in thirty-eight) were rejected. And 
in the report of 1863, the significant opinion is expressed, that the 
rejections might be increased thirty per cent, without detriment to 
the schools. Of 24,895 applications during the year, about one- 
fifth were rejected ; and with all this sifting, the present report 
speaks of "hundreds of ill qualified" (male) "teachers that infest 
the schools." 

In this state of things, we do not wonder that the appointment, 
by the general superintendent of schools, of three competent per- 
sons, to constitute a board of examiners, under an act of the 



IN THE UNITED STATES — OHIO. 51 

Legislature passed March, 1864, is regarded as a very important 
measure. So important, indeed, that the report made in August 
following speaks of tliat and another contemporaneous provision 
as " already infusing new life and energy into all the educational 
interests," &c. 

Of 19,342 certificates granted during the year, nearly one-half 
were for the term of six months, indicating to how large an extent 
the employment is regarded as merely temporary. Nor need we 
be surprised at this, when we learn from the commissioner that the 
compensation of public school teachers through the State has 
probably at no previous time been so inadequate, being not one 
per cent, more than in 1860-61, notwithstanding the advance of 
the cost of living in the interim, at least 50 per cent. The 
average wages of male teachers (1864) was $28 25 per month, 
and of females $17 05, or about fifty cents a day ! We regard 
this inadequate compensation of teachers as unequivocal evidence 
that the great body of the people do not heartily concur in the 
measures that the State adopts for the schooling of their children. 

ScJiool Term. — The law requires the authorities of each town- 
ship to see that the schools are continued for at least six months 
in each year. During the period of five years last past, the aver- 
age cf the term of school-keeping has been six months and four 
days. It was naturally inferred that, with a general average so 
near the minimum, some of the schools must fall below it; and on 
inquiry it was ascertained that several townships evaded the law 
which requires a local tax to be levied, and as soon as they had 
expended their dividend of the public fund the school was closed ! 
And it farther appeared that 2,040 (or nearly one in twenty of 
all the sub-district schools in the State) were kept open less than 
twenty-four weeks. The whole number of toAvnships in the State 
subject to the general law is 1,351, and nearly half of them fell below 
the legal requirement, — some remaining open for five months, 
some for four, and some for only twelve weeks of the year ! 

And it is not on any plea of the poverty of the people of the 
districts in which these delinquencies occur that a defence can be 
sustained. They must be traced, as the commissioner aflSrms, to 
the indifference of school directors, which originates in the failure 
of the people to appreciate the advantages of the education of 
their children. 



52 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 

And here tlie inquiry again meets ns, whether, if the fruits 
of school teaching were as apparent to farmers and mechanics as 
are the fruits of their own labour in the field and workshop, this 
iiidiffcrence or "lack of appreciation" as it is called, would exist? 
The prevailing systems under present review seek a remedy for 
this acknowledged evil in "extraneous agencies." "A school 
system left to itself," says the report before us, " soon relapses 
into a state of inefiiciency, and becomes practically lifeless. It must 
have vitality and progress constantly breathed into it" — (p. 17). 
But is there not something in such a life closely resembling the 
effects of the "extraneous agency" of galvanism on the dead 
natural body ? The eyes of the unconscious subject may open 
and shut, and other muscles may contract and relax, and possibly, 
by sufficient power, even an erect posture might be produced.* But 
the heart is still. The flesh is cold. The man is dead. "What- 
ever importance we may attach to the methods of preserving life, 
developing its functions and increasing their vigour, the life itself 
precedes them all. We are persuaded that a candid review of the 
condition of the schools of the State, as it is disclosed in this 
report, would convince any intelligent man or woman that what- 
ever progress has been made in the number and value of " ex- 
traneous agencies" since the law of 1853, the popular appreciation 
of the system has sensibly declined. 

jSchoolhouses. — We would ask no more liberal provision for the 
public schoolhouse than the Ohio commissioner grants. Ho would 
have it an attractive and cheerful place, neat and commodious, its 
furniture and conveniences equal at least to the average comfort 
and taste of the community. He would have not much (if any) less 
than an acre of ground for its site, enclosed with a neat substantial 
fence, with wood-shed and other outhouses. He would have play- 
grounds separate for boys and girls, and if shrubbery and flowers 
are not to be had, shade trees must suffice. He is minute enough 
in his inventory of appendages, to include door-mats and scrapers 
for muddy shoes. It would surprise us to receive credible testi- 
mony that one in a hundred of the country schoolhouses in the 
State answers to this very modest demand. 

It is however to the credit of the statistical bureau that there is 
some sort of a report from every schoolhouse in the State, and 

* A frog, just killed, Las been made to leap by the force of a galvanic baiter^-. 



IN THE UNITED STATES — OHIO. 53 

equally to the credit of the people, that of so considerable a number 
of them a somewhat favourable report may be made. While it is 
doubtless true that neat and commodious schoolhouses can be seen 
scattered here and there over the State, and that there is some 
pride felt in having them, the traveller through numerous dis- 
tricts, away from thoroughfares and populous towns, still sees 
very striking excej)tions ; and even where the buildings may have 
a respectable exterior, the arrangement, furniture and condition 
within are anything but what they should be. 

The average cost of the schoolhouses in the year 1863-4 was 
$820, exceeding by $200 the average cost of those built in 1861-2. 
But this excess might have resulted from a few very expensive 
buildings, while their general character was but slightly if at all 
improved. The commissioner deals gently with his constituents, 
and gives them credit for having done many things well. He 
thinks good houses the rule and poor houses the exception; but 
admits that in " too many counties the great object seems to have 
been to build cheap houses, and those only when absolutely neces- 
sary." He also animadverts with deserved severity on the niggard- 
liness that is too often shown in the selection of sites. "The 
design," he says, "in many cases seems to have been to get the 
schoolhouse" out of the Avay ; " to locate it where nobody will ever 
wish to build anything else." In other cases, he informs us, the 
schoolhouse stands in the centre of the district, though the centre 
be a mudhole ; and in still other cases the site has been determined 
by some citizen, who " to secure selfish ends has donated a few 
square feet of clay for the purpose." 

If we turn to the reports of county auditors, we shall certainly 
fail to have our opinion of the Ohio schoolhouses raised. 

Schoolhouses are improved as rapidly as the people will allow,* 
— a very pregnant report. 

Frame-houses generally in good condition — log-houses poor — 
about one-half of each kind.f 

Perhaps one-half of them are tolerably respectable houses. J 

The schoolhouses are in bad condition. § 

Tolerably good. Most of them are new, or nearly so, but not 
properly cared for.|| 

On an average the schoolhouses are in a pretty good con- 
dition.*! 

* Franklin. f Putnam. % Pike. | Union. || Warren. ^ Mahoning. 
5 



54 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 

Half in first-rate condition — one-fourtli passable — one-fourth 
miserable.* 

In the absence of any standard by "which to determine ■whether a 
given l)uilding and its grounds are what they ought to be, "wc can- 
not accept " averages," nor attach any very definite meaning to 
"respectable," "tolerably good," " pretty good," &c., &c. The 
reports being made with the certainty that they will be known to 
the people whose delinquencies they record, will doubtless give the 
most favourable representations; and no one can carefully scan 
those from which we have made these brief extracts, without no- 
ticing the equivocal and evasive phraseology which many (may we 
not say most ?) of them employ in reference to schoolhouses. In 
several instances where the houses are reported to be in bad con- 
dition, the furniture is said to be good, while in others the furniture 
is condemned ; and in one casef is " wholly unfit for the purpose 
and conducive only to bad order and ill-health." 

And in this connection again, there is forced upon our view the 
lack of popular sympathy with the daily public school. The school- 
house is rarely built while the job can be deferred with impunity, 
and when built it is with a grudging economy. The site, as we are 
told on authority, is usually most ineligible for that purpose, and 
useless for any other. The quantity of ground is barely sufficient 
for tbe building, and for a passage into and around it. If either 
side of it can be made to serve for a length or two of fence, the 
building is so placed as to do it. Many a school might feel highly 
favoured if it commanded as much ground as "the pound," for the 
custody of stray pigs and horses, often occupies ; and what could 
express more emphatically the popular appreciation of the school 
itself than such penuriousness in accommodating it ? Each town- 
ship imposes such a tax upt)n itself as it thinks needful to pay for 
ground, building, furniture, &c. They can have their choice of 
sites. The sunniest or the shadiest, the loftiest or the lowliest — if the 
people say so — can be had. Perhaps no public building is so highly 
favoured in its possibilities, and certainly none is so wofully slighted 
in its realities. The commissioner claims nothing beyond the 
simplest riglits of children when he insists that their schoolhouse 
shall be an attractive and cheerful place in keeping with its high 
purpose; and its furniture and conveniences shall be quite e(|ual 
■■'■ iluron. f Washington. 



IN THE UNITED STATES — OHIO. 55 

to the average condition of the homes around it. If the people 
generally sit on hewn logs, eat from wooden plates, drink out of 
gourds and sleep on a pile of chips or corn-stalks, let the children 
at school be content with rude benches, bare walls, broken win- 
dows, dirty floors, and do without out-house, play-ground, broom, 
bucket, or cup. 

How far the reports from the several counties of the condition 
of schoolhouses are meant to embrace the not less important item 
of out-houses, does not appear. We notice only one county in ivhich 
a distinct reference is made to the subject, and in this the out- 
houses are described as "a disgrace to civilization!" There will 
be occasion to advert more at large to this subject in connection 
with other States. 

Libraries. — By the general law of 1853, it was required that one- 
tenth of a mill on the dollar should be assessed on all the property 
taxable for State purposes ; the proceeds to be applied to the pur- 
chase of a library and apparatus for the common schools. The 
selection was to be made by the State commissioner, and the books 
and apparatus to be distributed by the county auditor, through the 
township clerks, holding the local school authorities responsible for 
their safe keeping and proper use. 

In 1860 the law authorizing such an assessment was repealed, 
and of course the continuance of the school library was left to the 
voluntary motion of the people ; and so far as the present report 
throws any light on the subject, the instances are very rare in which 
the library is at present of any practical value. When the report 
is "in good condition," it is added, "because not used," or "be- 
cause locked up." One county auditor reports that "many of the 
books still remain in the original packages, having never been 
opened; while some are to be found in private libraries, where 
they have remained for years."* "In many of the tovmships they 
are regarded as worthless, and one or two townships have never 
opened the packages, "f " The books amount to simply nothing in 
this county. ;|;" 

We do not refer to this as a matter of surprise. Those who have 

had much experience in the selection of books for the young, need 

not be told how perplexing and almost hopeless is the task when 

the- number must embrace several hundred. When the habits of 

* Fayette. f Licking. % Logan. 



56 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 

cliildren are considered, and also the condition and customs of not a 
few of the families represented in our common schools, it is obvious 
that to maintain a system of school libraries, from year to year, 
would require a degree of methodical and vigilant superintendence 
which the law does not contemplate, and which the people could 
scarcely be expected to provide. The fact is such an append- 
age to the common school has no appropriate place or use, and no 
act of legislation or device of hobby-riders will make it succeed. 

Institutes. — The prominent if not the only agency for the im- 
provement of teachers is the Institute. Its establishment was en- 
couraged by an act of the Legislature in 1847, and its existence is 
recognized by the act of 1853. A few public-spirited teachers en- 
tered into the plan, paying the expense from their own purses. 
The number of Institutes held in 1854 was 41, attended by 2,633 
teachers in all, and the number in 1863 was 20, with less than 
half the attendance of the previous year. The fees now paid to 
examining boards by applicants for certificates are appropriated 
to the support of Institutes, and the State is urged to make an 
additional grant for the purpose of employing a corps of instructors 
for them. We believe no normal school has been opened in Ohio, 
though such a method of training teachers is regarded by the com- 
missioner as exceedingly desirable. 

We have thus briefly surveyed the arrangements for supplying 
700,000 children and youth of Ohio with instruction in the six 
elementary branches of learning required by law. The school tax 
being paid in and the school fund distributed, there are supposed 
to be adequate means of providing houses and supplying teachers; 
and as a safeguard against the intrusion of unqualified persons to 
this important i)OSt, examiners are appointed, without whose in- 
dorsement they can neither be employed nor paid. We have 
already adverted to the gratifying fact that a large proportion of 
the teachers are females, and to the painful fact that their com- 
pensation is comparatively so inadequate ; but the vital inquiry is 
what is the measure of their skill, and what is actually accom- 
plished by their labours, and of this we have unhappily no means 
of judging. 

The recent state of the country is supposed to account in most 
cases for the acknowledged falling off in the character and eflBciency 
of the schools, and the stereotyped report, " in a good condition," 



IN THE UNITED STATES — OHIO. 57 

or "as good as could be expected" seems not materially to aid our 
inquiries. Conceding the largest reasonable credit which the daily 
public schools of Ohio can claim for contributions to the "educated 
labour" of the country, will it not still be found that the boys and 
girls leave school with very scanty preparation for life's work ? 
Is it not true that they scarcely begin to use their faculties natu- 
rally and to good purpose till they turn their backs upon the school 
and address themselves to the lessons of actual experience ? The 
introduction to a printing oflBce, a store, a counting room or an 
attorney's office will soon reveal to a boy how far his school life is 
of real service to him. 

The item of evidence we have introduced in another connection 
from a chaplain in our late army* negatives the presumption that 
any recent condition of public affairs will account for the deficiencies 
in common school instruction, as that evidence applies to a period 
prior by ten or fi^fteen years ; and it shows that in three of the six 
branches required to be "thoroughly" taught in all the common 
schools of Ohio, viz.: reading, writing and orthography, there is a 
lamentable deficiency. 

It will be observed that the aims and agencies of the school 
system of Ohio are much humbler at present than those of the 
other three States which we propose to review. No very general 
or systematic plan has been adopted to elevate the calling of the 
common school teacher into a profession. The inducements held 
out to those who might be disposed to adopt the vocation are not 
very powerful. Since the present system was inaugurated, teachers 
were never so poorly compensated as they are now. In high 
schools, and schools in which German and English are both taught, 
the compensation is more liberal. It is quite evident that such 
rates could not be expected to secure the services of men and women 
of superior qualifications. And while so few avenues to respectable 
and remunerative employment are open to women, we are not sur- 
prised to learn that so large a proportion of teachers are of that sex. 
But we can scarcely expect them to qualify themselves for the 
duties of the place so long as the tenure is so uncertain, and the pay 
but little more than that of a housemaid. 

If the preceding sketch is not greatly overdrawn, it must be ad- 
mitted that the six or seven hundred thousand children of the State 

* See page 11. 



o8 Tin-; DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 

who depend on the daily public school to fit them for the grand in- 
heritance of liberty to which they are born, "will be very imperfectly 
served; and it is to be regretted that in the commissioner's report 
there is so little to guide us in estimating the actual efficiency of 
the system. The very brief statements of county auditors embrace 
the items of schoolhouses, libraries, schools and school returns, the 
last occupying as usual as much room as the other three combined. 
If the complaints which the county auditors make of the incom- 
petency of township clerks are not greatly exaggerated, we should 
not be disposed to place much reliance on their reports of the con- 
dition of the schools or schoolhouses, nor indeed of anything else. 
On the other hand, the township boards are here and there charged 
with a neglect of duties, which if performed would aid the clerks in 
the discharge of their's. The auditor of Coshocton County very 
properly maintains that "there must jBrst be teachers who can 
make reports, and then Ave want clerks who can tell Avhat a report 
should contain." And the auditor of Hocking County is still more 
emphatic; "I returned nearly all the reports for correction, and yet 
they are disgustingly imperfect to one who is accustomed to doing 
business correctly. * * * As a general thing, the majority of our 
teachers are no more fitted for their calling than is the untutored 
North American Indian for President of the United States." 

The loose phraseology in which most of these official statements 
are made, leaves the impression that no very minute investigation 
is at the bottom of them. What definite notion can one obtain, for 
example, from a report like this: "A majority of the school- 
houses are pretty good, the minority not so good." Or this con- 
cerning libraries: "In a good condition as a general thing; a 
great many books are kept locked up in the library." Or this 
about schools: "My personal acquaintance^ and knowledge of the 
actual condition of the schools in this county is (are) too limited to 
speak advisedly on this point," — the only point, by the Avay, on which 
his official duty required him to speak at all. 

We look in vain for any report from competent judges of the 
proficiency of the schools in useful knowledge or of examinations 
to test the fJtoroughness of the instruction, or of improvements in 
books, discipline and methods of teaching, or in the character and 
morals of the pupils. If such a report could be looked for from 
any quarter, it would be from the office of the district school directors. 



IN THE UNITED STATES — OHIO. 59 

whose business it is not only to establish the schools and build the 
houses, but to appoint the teachers, fix their pay, prescribe studies 
and text-books, and exercise a general supervision of the schools. 

If we judge from the return of one of the county superintendents, 
to whom the district directors are bound to report, we might infer 
that the hope of much light from this quarter is delusive. After 
adverting to sundry evils that flow from their neglect of duty or 
want of qualification to attend to it, he sarcastically suggests as a 
remedy that "some degree of moral and literary qualifications 
should be made a condition of eligibility to the office." He com- 
plains that from one-third of the districts the reports are unin- 
telligible, if not illegible ; that in many instances the average at- 
tendance reported exceeds the number enrolled, and in some in- 
stances 50 per cent, more are returned as enrolled than are 
enumerated as belonging to the district ! and when the report is 
sent back for correction, its last state is worse, nine times in ten, 
than its first. He justly concludes that no correction of this abuse 
is practicable while men who cannot keep accounts or calculate 
averages are put into such an office. 

Grraded Schools-. — The practice of grading the schools — that is, 
the very natural arrangement of them into departments, as pri- 
mary, secondary, grammar, principal, &c. — has been introduced to 
some extent in the larger towns, and is regarded with favour by 
the school authorities of Ohio, but this orAj facilitates the work of 
instruction ; it does not perform it. It rather embarrasses than 
helps an incompetent teacher. It does not aid us to answer the 
question. Do the daily public schools of Ohio take the children 
of the people by the hand, and after a reasonable time, introduce 
them into life endowed with such substantial advantages of educa- 
tion that we may reasonably expect them to be " blessings to 
society, adorning their various pursuits with, intelligence and vir- 
tue — enriching them with discovexnes — elevating and equalizing 
the rank and respectability of their widely diff"erent occupations — 
making industry honourable, and securing to every form of honest 
labour its proper dignity?"* Not less than this is theoretically 
promised — not less than this is often passed to their credit in 
stump speeches. Who has not heard the glowing, grandiloquent 
* Eleventh Annual Report of Commissioner, p. 25. 



CO THE DAILY PUBLIC SCUOOL 

panegyrics passed on the "people's colleges," as these schools are 
called ? 

Much is expected from a recent provision of law adding to the 
necessary qualifications of teachers " an adequate knowledge of 
the theory and practice of teaching." It is clear that such 
knowledge does not come unsought. The "theory" is to be 
learned by reading, observation, and instruction. But what man 
or woman Avill spend the needful time and labour to possess them- 
selves of the theory with the prospect of seventy-five cents, or 
even twice that sum, for the practice, which is not less than six 
hours close confinement at what is, to most persons, the hardest and 
most wearing work that can be undertaken ? And how long will 
the practice survive an opportunity to engage in something less 
onerous and better paid ? There can be no doubt of the wisdom 
of appointing a State board of school examiners, and investing it 
with power to issue certificates of high qualifications to teachers 
of eminent professional ability and experience. It is well to have 
such teachers within reach whenever the interest of the people of 
any town or district is sufficiently awakened to demand their ser- 
vices. And we shall look eagerly for the reports from year to 
year, to see how many of this higher order of certificates are 
issued ; where the honoured possessors of them labour, and with 
what eff'ect ; and how many of them will be found pursuing the 
noble vocation from year to year at the head of some daily public 
school in Ohio. 

Reports of County Auditors. — But our present inquiry relates 
to things as they are. What do the present schools and teachers 
accomplish? We have already introduced one item of evidence. 
In the absence of any common standard or criterion by which to 
determine the acquisitions of the pupils, we must resort to what 
we can glean from very general returns. The State commission- 
er's duties (stationary and itinerant) are too numerous and harass- 
ing to allow him to inquire very minutely into the methods of 
teaching in individual schools, or into the attainments of the 
taught. The general appearance and deportment of the school 
will ordinarily indicate the presence or absence of disciplinary 
tact or power, but no exercise conducted by the teacher, nor any 
cursory examination of the school at large by. a visitor, will serve 



IN THE UNITED STATES — OHIO. 61 

to show tlie extent, accuracy or availability of what has been 
learned. 

The spirit of the returns of the county auditors is seen in such 
expressions as the following: — "In some townships the schools 
are in a prosperous condition, in others it seems there is no interest 
manifested by either school officers or parents."* " Schools gene- 
rally good — progress onward."t " The condition of our common 
schools is, I believe, tolerable, and their progress proportionate. "J 
"Schools in this county generally in a healthy condition." § 
" Generally in good condition." || " Schools are progressing very 
well — considerable interest is taken in them." ^ " Pretty fair." ** 
"Reports indicate a tolerably prosperous condition of the schools, "ff 
" Tolerably fair."|| " Township schools are slowly improving, but 
many of these hardly deserve the name of schools." §§ We have 
not selected these expressions from the best or the worst reports. 

Passing from these reports of subordinate officers to that of 
the State commissioner, who may be supposed to gather his opinion 
partly from inspection, but mainly from the various concentrated 
returns to his office, we find a different estimate of the condition 
of the schools. He tells us that "one half" of the great outlay 
of nearly three millions of dollars is turned in unskilful hands to 
ashes instead of blessings; "and (what he thinks very surprising) 
this startling disclosure is received by the people with comparative 
indifference !" |||| And he adds, that "in ninety-nine cases out of 
every hundred, not a school officer qualified to detect, and with 
authority to correct the mischief, ever enters the school-rooms of 
our country districts." * * * "What wonder is it," he asks, 
"that the apple of instruction, so rich in promise, so often fills the 
mouths of hungry souls with the ashes of ignorance. "'^^ 

To make the deficiency more glaring, he fancies the marvellous 
change that would be wrought if a school-inspector, possessing 
proper authority and qualifications, were to enter one of "these 
forlorn school-rooms," to test the value and thoroughness of the 
instruction imparted — the discipline and classification, and all the 
other elements of an efficient school.*** It would be difficult to 
present in stronger contrast that which is and that which should 

* Belmont. f Champaigne. J Columbiana. | Fairfield. 

II Franklin. ^ Henry. ** Mahoning. f j Union. 

XX Wyandot. §§ Huron. |||| Eleventh Report, p 34. 

T[1[ Eleventh Report, p. 35. . *** Ibid. 



62 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 

be. Nevertheless it is on the discreditable rcalitj", and not on he 
reputable potentiality that the good people of Ohio depend for 
educating nearly three-fourths of a million of its future popula- 
tion — in other words, for moulding the intellectual and moral 
character of the State for the coming generation, — and none can 
tell for how many generations beyond. 

We just now expressed a distrust of the ordinary reports of 
public examinations. We have witnessed them in almost every 
variety of schools, i^ublic and private, of academies and of colleges. 
It is rare that an accurate impression is conveyed by them of the 
true attainments of the pupils. We cannot better illustrate what 
we mean than by citing two or three veritable cases. 

An American tourist, specially interested in the subject of public 
schools, came into conference with some of the friends and active 
supporters of what is known as the British and Foreign School So- 
ciety. Happening to be in the neighbourhood of a school organized 
on the principles of that Society, and regarded by its patrons as a 
model, the foreigner was pressed for an opinion of its merits, which 
he was reluctant to give unless he could have an opportunity to test 
the attainments of the pupils by a personal examination. Of course 
this was readily afforded. Some ten or fifteen boys, whose profi- 
ciency in the knowledge of spelling and parsing was most unques- 
tionable, were assembled in a room by themselves. A monitor 
proposed to accompany them but his presence was declined, and 
the stranger was left alone with this group of school-boys. The 
words to be spelled and parsed were written as they were given out, 
together with the several answers, of Avhich no corrections were al- 
lowed. Long before the examination was concluded, several of the 
boys evinced great restiveness, and evidently felt that a method of 
examination so unusual would not result to their credit. When the 
task was completed, the record was read and corrections were per- 
mitted if the record was erroneous. The principal of the school 
was quite indignant that such a mode of examination should be 
adopted, and was not at all surprised that under such circumstances, 
shut up with a perfect stranger and plied with such questions, they 
should have spelled beginning with one n, indelible with an a in 
the third syllabic, clim-actcr with three r's, and opportunitg with 
one p.* The parsing was not more creditable, to say the least. 

•" It was in vain attempted to convince him that a fright would be as likely' to 
laako a bad speller spell right as to make a good speller spell wrong. 



IN THE UNITED STATES — OHIO. 63 

In another instance it was the fortune of the same person to visit 
a somewhat famous school for the education of boys, in one of our 
chief cities. A class was called for an exercise in rhetoric. As 
this was an advanced branch for the class, he asked if they 
were familiar with the principles of English grammar. " Cer- 
tainly," replied the teacher; "they have been out of it some 
months." The visitor said he had rarely found a class that were 
masters of the ordinary rules of parsing, and he would be obliged, 
if he might be allowed to take two or three of the choicest of his 
pupils aside and examine them. This was courteously granted. 
After a little chat to remove all embarrassment, the visitor said he 
would give them a sentence from a familiar English author, and 
would let them take each word consecutively, and he would write 
their answers. The passage was, 

" Shut, shut the door, good John," fatigued I said ; 
" Tie up the knocker! Say I'm sick ! Fm dead !" 

Only seven of the eighteen words were correctly parsed, their 
own teacher himself being judge ! 

It oftentimes occurs in a public examination, that questions are 
pushed just to the point where blank ignorance begins. " The great 
thing with knowledge for the young is, that it shall not be exter- 
nal to their inner and real self; and therefore it is that the self- 
teaching that a baby and a child give themselves, remains with them 
forever. It is of their essence, whereas what is given them from 
without — especially if it be received mechanically, without relish and 
without any energizing of the entire nature — remains pitifully use- 
less. Try therefore always to get the resident teacher, who is inside 
the shin (and who is forever giving his lessons), to help you and be on 
your side. If we could only get the knowledge of the school to go 
as sweetly and deeply and clearly into the vitals of the mind as this 
self-teaching has done, we should get rid of much of that dreary, 
sheer endurance of their school-hours, that stolid lending of ears 
that do not hear, that objectless looking without ever once seeing, 
and straining the mind with an aim alternating, it may be, with 
some feats of dexterity and effort like a man trying to lift himself 
in his arms or take his head in his teeth, — exploits as dangerous as 
ungraceful and as useless, except to glorify the showman and bring 
wages in, as the feats of a rope-dancer. One who witnessed an 



64 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 

examination of a public school in which the chief exercises were like 
setting a mill agoing, compares the poor children to tubes through 
which the master blows peas of knoAvledge into the faces of the spec- 
tators. At such an examination a pupil was asked in the geogra- 
phy class where Sheffield was, on the map. It was pointed out. 
And then came a flourish. ^ And for what is Sheffield famous V 
After a pause a word came out that sounded as much like ' cutlery' 
as anything. But now for a puzzler. ' Ask the boy,' said a visi- 
tor, 'what cutlery is ?' and he 'did, but it was an effectual poser. 
The visitor thereupon took out a nice penknife with the Sheffield 
stamp on it, and such excitement as it produced was quite wonder- 
ful to the boys and girls in this ''aixlent cemetery of edication,' 
as the orator of the day called it."* 

There are three well-defined stages in school life. The first is 
before we go to the schoolhouse. Then curiosity is wide awake ; ob- 
servations are taken of real persons and things about us — the faculties 
are quickened and exercised in a thousand natural ways, and the re- 
buff "Wait till you're older and then you'll know," is received with 
an ill grace. Then comes the artificial, mechanical stage in which 
ideas, locked up in type-metal and covered over with paper and 
leather, are to be ferreted out and put in methodical order for some 
future, undefined occasion ; and this is to be repeated month after 
month and year after year, until a given day, when the process is 
authoritatively declared complete, and a scroll of parchment, gaily 
adorned with ribands, attests the fact ; and then we reach the third 
stage, which resembles the first in its real, matter-of-fact demands, 
but at the same time applies an inexorably severe test to that inter- 
mediate process called schooling. What the boy or girl knows is 
not now so much the question as how far his or her knowledge can 
be put to use. In most important respects true education now 
begins. The stimulus of necessity, of pride, of ambition, or desire 
of gain acts with prodigious force. We learn to do things because 
we must, or because everybody else is doing the like. We en- 
counter difficulties that must crush us if not surmounted. We 
stumble upon problems which we must solve or else starve or freeze. 
We may have been taiu/Itt before, but we are now educated. The 
l)lain truth is that hosts of public school teachers are (as another 
says) getting the public money for that which is not bread, and 

■'•" Jolm Brown, ]\r.D. 



IN THE UNITED STATES — OHIO. 65 

giving their own labour for that which satisfieth not; industriously 
making saw dust into the shape of bread, and chaif into the ap- 
pearance of meal, and contriving, at wonderful expense of money 
and brains, to show what can be done in the way of feeding upon 
wind. 

In the course of fifty years' pretty close observation of a great 
variety of men and women, of diverse temperament, social relations, 
capacities and pursuits, we have scarcely found one in a thousand 
that could spell, read, write or speak their mother tongue with pro- 
priety. Still w^e maintain that good (though "common") school 
teaching should insure such an accomplishment in nine cases out 
of ten, where there is no natural impediment or hinderance ; and yet, 
could we collect together the children of Ohio who passed six 
months of 1864 in the daily public school, we question very much 
wl^ether a majority of them would show any material advance upon 
the stock of this sort of school-knowledge with which they closed 
the previous season. Not so with any six months preceding or 
following the school-going period. Nature's school and the world's 
school are wonderfully in advance of the schoolmaster's school. 

All this we have said in view of the j^rovisions of the Ohio Legis- 
lature to supply the children of the State with adequate means 
of instruction in the elements of useful knowledge ; and we could 
easily adduce abundant testimony to show that though of real value 
so far as they go, the machinery and the expense of putting it in 
motion are entirely disproportioned to what is accomplished. The 
results are, to a great extent, unserviceable in the experience of life. 

There is one cardinal point in the present inquiry which we have 
purposely reserved to the last. We do not find it recognized very 
distinctly, if at all, in the report; and yet surely it falls within the 
legitimate province of the common school, in a country like ours, to 
teach the principles of morality as well as the rules of arithmetic 
and grammar. There can be no order without law. Submission 
to authority is, or should be, a much earlier lesson than A, B, C. 
The school is established by law. The teacher derives his authority 
from law, and not an elementary science can be unfolded that does 
not reveal the presence of law. He must be a skilful dodger who 
can teach a group of children even for a few hours and not encoun- 
ter some call for a recognition of law. 

Lessons of duty to parents and schoolmates, to public authorities. 



66 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 

and to the Supreme Lawgiver of tlie universe, enter into the 
rudest idea of an American child's school education quite as much 
as the aljjhabet and the multiplication table. And yet what medium 
exists through which we may gain a correct idea of j^opular im- 
provement in these respects ? The daily public school is the only 
school of manners that multitudes of children ever attend ; and their 
deportment, in and out of school, is to the credit or reproach of 
their teachers. We do not remember any distinct allusion to this 
branch of instruction in any of the reports, nor does it head one of 
the columns of the blank forms. It is not regarded, we apprehend, 
as an end to be sought, whatever individual teachers may see 
fit to do towards it. And from whom could we expect to receive 
reports on the subject ? No casual visitor would be competent 
to judge. There may be a constrained decorum preserved by 
the school during a visit and a very favourable judgment formed, 
but if the boys and girls are followed to the playground (where 
there happens, fortunately, to be one) or to their homes, and their 
conduct towards those who have a right to their respect and obedi- 
ence is observed, we shall soon see how far the moral discipline of 
the school has been healthy and efiicient. It must be admitted 
that, as a general thing, our youth evince very little of that docility 
of temper and reverence for law and authority which any true 
system of education is presumed to enjoin, and hence we can hardly 
escape the inference that it is generally neglected in the adminis- 
tration of the daily public schools of Ohio. 

It should be remembered that no people on earth are so com- 
pletely dependent on any of their institutions for national position 
and character, as Ave are on our public schools for ours. In other 
civilized countries the ruling classes are, numerically, a small 
minority, but they give a tone to the manners and social habits of 
the country. When corruption and licentiousness are rampant in 
court circles, it is not long before their grosser forms are revealed 
all the way down the social scale. Sometimes a single reign, like 
that of Elizabeth or Louis XVI., works a revolution in the whole 
character of national manners. 

The degree of refinement or civilization to which a people have 
attained is denoted by their use of language, the deportment of the 
sexes towards each other, taste in dress, public amusements, archi- 
tecture, the fine arts, domestic relations and usages, — in a word, the 



IN THE UNITED STATES — OHIO. 67 

general carriage of the people in their daily life. As we have said, 
the existence of a "privileged class" may — nay must — give a tone to 
society ; but withus the whole body of the nation is the privileged 
class ; and hence the desirable diffusion of the influences of a high 
civilization must be secured by some other, better and safer agency ; 
and there is none known to us more general, appropriate and effi- 
cient than our daily public schools. The influence of our colleges, 
academies and high schools, though very important in this view, is 
comparatively limited. Of whom shall we inquire what pains are 
taken to cultivate good manners, and repress whatever is coarse, 
boorish and barbarous, as well as vicious, in the boys and girls of 
Ohio? What report of visitors, directors, auditors or commissioners 
embraces such an item ? What care is taken that the teachers, 
whose deportment is itself an educating influence in this direction, 
are refined and well-bred men and women, or at least not rude and 
clownish in their manners ? 

We do not say that the deficiencies we have exposed are not in- 
separable from the principles on which our American institutions 
are founded. It may be that with free suffrage, a free press, and 
a free religion, we must drift along with the tide of time, carrying 
an enormous and constantly increasing load of foreign ignorance, 
prejudice, poverty and crime, and take our chance for national 
renown. But if it be true that the general prevalence of intelli- 
gence and virtue is requisite to preserve us from disaster ; if such 
institutions as ours will endure only so long as those who live under 
them arc capable of appreciating and upholding them, then the chil- 
dren of successive generations must be universally and thoroughly 
instructed in the elementary branches of useful learning ; and if our 
common schools are relied on to produce this result, we submit that 
such reliance is not warranted by the condition of these schools, 
if the survey we have taken of them is at all just. The law is all 
that could be asked. Its requirement is that such provision shall 
be made by the General Assembly as shall ^^ secure a thorough and 
efficient system of common schools throughout the State." What 
may or may not be done to further the interests of education be- 
yond this, in cities and large towns, is a separate, independent in- 
quiry. If the specific requisition of the law is honestly fulfilled in 
the institution of a sufficient number of good common schools — 
good in location, in accommodation, in furniture, in books, in- 



63 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 

struction and discipline, — the commonwealth will not suifer serious 
detriment, if higher advantages are attainable only at private cost. 
If, on the other hand, the common school is not what it might and 
should be, no expense or thought bestowed on higher institutions of 
learning will avert fatal mischief to the general welfare. 

We repeat a positive disclaimer of any kind or degree of hostility 
to the most liberal expenditure of public money, or to any legislation 
that secures the multiplication and improvement of daily common 
schools. We heartily advocate any practical plan for preparing the 
teachers of these schools for their work. We admit the full force of 
the saying " the better the teachers, the better the schools ;" but Avhy 
train astronomers at public expense, when astronomy is not one of 
the branches of instruction in the public schools which they are to 
teach? Let us direct our legislation, expenditures, thoughts and 
sympathies to the grand duty of giving instruction to all children in 
the branches of learning that are requisite to give them a fair start, 
and the rest will take care of itself. 



IN THE UNITED STATES PENNSYLVANIA. 69 



THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL IN PENNSYLVANIA. 



SYNOPSIS OF SCHOOL LAWS. 

School Districts. — A regular school district is a township, 
borough, or city not divided into wards. It has corporate powers, 
and acts through an elective board of six directors. Independent 
districts may be formed separate from the ordinary school district 
under proceedings in the courts of law, but only to protect and 
promote education in localities that cannot be properly cared for 
as township districts. The City of Philadelphia, and five other 
cities or boroughs in the State are organized under special legis- 
lation. School districts are empowered to hold such real and 
personal property as is needed for school purposes. They may 
borrow money to purchase sites or build houses to an amount not 
exceeding one half of one per cent, of the assessed value of real 
estate in the district. 

Directo7'-s. — The directors of the schools are elected annually in 
each district like other town officers, and may be removed for 
cause. They serve gratuitously. They are required to establish 
a sufficient number of common schools of different grades for the 
education of all children in the district between six and twenty- 
one, who may apply for admission, in the following branches, viz. : 
Orthography, reading, writing, arithmetic, geography and gram- 
mar, and such other branches as the directors may authorize, but 
the county superintendent is to see that the branches named are 
taught. The number of children to constitute a school is not 
specified, but it has been decided that if there is not a school for 
every fifty children, the spirit of the law is not complied Avith. 

Coloured Schools. — The directors are empowered to open schools 
for coloured children (negroes and mulattos) where twenty or more 
desire to attend, and, when established, they are to be kept open 
four months in the year ; and wherever such schools are opened, 
the directors are not required to admit this class of children to the 
6 



70 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCUOOL 

public schools, nor are they prohibited from attending these schools 
unless by implication. 

Poivers of Directors. — The directors have the general superin- 
tendence of the schools in the district. They are required to visit 
each school once every month. They also appoint teachers, fix 
their salaries, and dismiss them for cause ; prescribe branches of 
study and text-books, and suspend or expel refractory pupils. 
They are also required to grade the schools, and fix terms of 
admission. 

School Buildings. — The directors are required to procure suit- 
able sites, purchase, build or rent schoolhouses, and supply the 
same with proper conveniences, fuel, &c. The term " conveniences" 
embraces desks for teachers and pupils, and whatever in the way 
of furniture is needed for cleanliness, health, and comfort. 

Plans. — Building plans are furnished by the State, having in 
view good light and healthful ventilation. In a few counties, by 
special legislation, suitable sites, not exceeding an acre in extent, 
may be entered upon by directors against the will of the owner, 
and appropriated to school buildings, proper compensation for the 
same being made. 

Boohs. — No person ofiicially connected Avith the administration 
of the school system can be concerned in selling or promoting the 
sale of books or school apparatus on pain of fine and imprison- 
ment.* Immediately after the election of teachers, and before the 
opening of the schools, the directors and teachers are required 
to meet and determine what books in the different departments 
shall be used. Books are to be provided by parents, and if they 
neglect it their children can be excluded until compliance, except 
in case of indigence. 

Taxes. — The directors are required to determine annually the 
amount of school tax necessary (in addition to the State appropria- 
tion, and the income from other sources) to keep the schools open 
from four to ten months of the year, and levy the same. They may 
also at any time, though not twice in the same year, levy a special 
tax, not greater than the school tax, to pay for buildings or sites. 

Teachers. — In all contracts with teachers the school month is 
twenty-two days. The county superintendent is required to ex- 

* The practice of book agents in taking old books for the purpose of introducing 
a new scries by a different publislier, is condemned. 



IN THE UNITED STATES — PENNSYLVANIA. 71 

amine all candidates for the profession of teacliers, and to give a 
certificate (good only in the county) specifying the branches the 
person is qualified to teach, and in these branches only shall such 
teacher be employed. A' new examination and a new certificate 
are required if a new branch is to be taught. Persons who have 
been at the normal school are to have certificates, stating the 
branches in which they are qualified to teach, so far as the theory 
is concerned.?^ 

Teachers of common schools, who have taught three annual 
terms consecutively in the same district, may be examined at the 
same time, and receive similar certificates, as if from the normal 
school. A normal school certificate shall be conclusive evidence 
of scholarship to the extent set forth in it, in every part of the 
State, without farther examination. To obtain a certificate of 
competency in the practice of teaching by a normal school pupil, 
he must have actually taught under the first certificate two full 
annual terms, and must show a good mioral character, and a satis- 
factory discharge of duty. 

Institutes. — Institutes for the improvement of teachers may, at 
the option of directors, be held in the district on any two Satur- 
days of the month which they may appoint. These two days are 
reckoned in the twenty- two days of the school month, when occu- 
pied by institutes. 

District Superiyitendents. — The district superintendent is not 
recognized by the law, but is employed to visit schools and make 
reports. He must be the secretary of the school directors, and 
may receive compensation. 

County Superintendent. — The school directors of the several 
counties are required to hold a convention every third year at the 
county seat, and appoint a person of literary and scientific acquire- 
ments (meaning sufficient scholarship to enable the person to give 
sound and thorough instruction in the branches required to be 
taught in schools) and of skill and experience in teaching (mean- 
ing a sound knowledge of the theory and actual experience of 
teaching, as a professional, and not an occasional employment), 
who is to be the county superintendent — to hold office for three 

* There is no provision respecting who shall give a certificate of qualification so 
far as practice is concerned, unless it is included iu the county superintendent's 
certificate. 



72 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 

years — his compensation to be fixed by the directors (ranging from 
$300 to $1,500), to be sworn, and to receive Lis commission from 
the State superintendent. He is not to be concerned in the selec- 
tion of teachers or books. He is to see,*however, that the required 
branches are properly taught, and if teachers are not competent 
he is to notify the directors ; and if they do not obtain others, he 
is to notify the State superintendent, who shall withhold the State 
appropriation from the delinquent district. The county superin- 
tendent may be removed for cause. 

State Superintendent of Common Schools. — This officer is ap- 
pointed by the Executive, with the advice of the Senate, for the term 
of three years, at a fixed salary. His duties are specified by law, 
and among them is that of attending Institutes and visiting nor- 
mal schools. 

Normal Sclwols. — The State is divided into twelve normal 
districts. Thirteen or more citizens uniting for the establishment 
of a school for the training of teachers may secure the benefits of 
one such school in the district, to be under the direction of a board 
of trustees, who shall report to the State superintendent. In 
order to be accepted, the school must have ten. acres of ground, 
and buildings, embracing a hall of sufficient capacity to seat one 
thousand adults, with class-rooms, lodging-rooms, refectory, &c., 
&c., for at least three hundred pupils — all the apartments well 
lio-hted, lieated, and ventilated ; also a library room, cabinet, and 
other apparatus. Each school is to have six professors, qualified 
to fill the various departments, one of which shall be the theory 
and practice of teaching. One of the six shall be Principal, in 
whom the discipline and government shall be vested. Attached to 
each school shall be one or more model schools, with not less than one 
hundred pupils, so placed as to afford the pupils of the normal school 
an opportunity to acquire a practical knowledge of the art of teach- 
ing. Qualifications for admission to be prescribed at a meeting of 
the principals of the several normal schools. They shall admit as 
pupils one student annually (alternating the sexes) from each com- 
mon scbool district within the limits of the normal district, at a 
cost fixed by the trustees of the several schools, and paid in 
advance by the directors Avho send them. Candidates for admis- 
sion under this provision to be selected from male pupils of sixteen 
or more, and females of fourteen or more, on examination by 



IN THE UNITED STATES — PENNSYLVANIA. 73 

directors, of such only as manifest a desire and capacity to make 
teaching a profession. The persons trained in the normal schools 
"shall be liable" to devote the three years next after leaving, to 
teaching common schools in the district that paid for their train- 
ing, if required by directors, and shall receive the medium salary 
paid in such district. If not required there, they shall serve three 
years in some other district — at what they can get. The obligation 
to do this shall be one of the conditions of their admission to the 
normal school. School teachers may also be admitted to the nor- 
mal school on prescribed terms. Examinations to be conducted 
by the principals of the several normal schools. 



CONDITION OF SCHOOLS. 

Some of the peculiar features of the school system of Pennsyl- 
vcmia will be observed in the foregoing sketch of the School Law. 

Oost. — The total cost of the common schools for 1864 (taxes and 
State appropriations) was $2,381,173, of which $1,692,664 was for 
tuition.* The whole teaching and building tax was less than one 
cent on the dollar of taxable property. The average cost per 
pupil was sixty-two cents a month, and the average length of the 
school term five months and seventeen days. 

The number of teachers examined in 1864 was 15,789, or less 
by 1,839 than in 1863 ; and the number of candidates rejected in 
1864 was 1,009 less than in 1862. The inferiority of the teaching 
force for the year is ascribed (1.) to the depletion of the ranks of 
male teachers, occasioned by the war, which took away over 3,000 
or more, and made it necessary to supply their places with such 
persons as were at hand ;t and (2.) to the fact that two-thirds of 
the examiners were new men. Hence certificates of qualification 
were granted to incompetent persons. Many boys who were too 
young to be drafted have been placed in charge of schools, though 
conscious themselves of their unfitness. And what is passing 
strange, the superintendent assures us, that in the central and 
southern counties of the State boys sixteen years of age, who 

* The total expenditure in 1865-6 for tuition, fuel, and buildings (exclusive of 
the first district, or Philadelphia) was $2,775,484 06. 

f We presume this embraces a period of two or three years. 



74 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 

never taught an hour in their lives, have been inducted into this 
responsible office in preference to well qualified and experienced 
female teacliers. 

Of the 14,668 teachers in service in 1864, 7,765 "were females.* 
The number of schools taught was 12, 566, f showing an increase of 
405 schools over 1863, but an increase of only 206 teachers, and 
these all females. 

The increase in the cost of tuition in 1864 was a little short of 
$200,000,1 and the average cost to each pupil per month 58 cents,§ 
or 6 per cent, advance on the previous year. The average length 
of the school term in 1864 was 5 months and 17 days. The aver- 
age wages of male teachers in 1864 was $25 42, in 1865-6 it was 
$31 82 per month, and of females in 1864, $20 16, and in 1865-6, 
$24 21. 

We cannot burden these fcAv pages with voluminous statistics, 
and we take the return of one county at random as a fair average 
in respect to the ages of teachers and the permanency of their voca- 
tion. Of 189 teachers employed in Bedford County during the 
year, 78, or nearly half, were from 15 to 20 years of age ; 49 
from 20 to 80; 139 had previously taught from four to twelve 
months, and nine of every ten regard the employment as tem- 
porary. 

Teachers. — It is an observable feature of the Pennsylvania re- 
port that females have obtained so large a share of public confi- 
dence. Though we are not informed what proportion of the teachers 
examined and certified in 1864 were females, the superintendent 
states that considerable pains have been taken by the department 
to ascertain the comparative success of male and female teachers, 
both in teaching and governing ; and he assures us that, with two 
or thtee exceptions, the result has been to show that females have 
succeeded quite as well as males when the amount of experience 
was the same ; that in counties where both have been engaged in 
schools of the same grade, and of equal size, the total failures have 
been greater with the males, in proportion to the number employed, 
than with the females ; and also that, as a general thing, female 
teachers have been quite as acceptable to the public. He does not 
recommend dispensing with male teachers in cities and large towns, 

* Increased to 8,045 in 18G5-G. f In 1865-6, 12,548. 

+ In 1865-G it was increased ?p300,000. g G8, in 1865-6. 



IN THE UNITED STATES — PENNSYLVANIA. 75 

thongli he is doubtless aware that some of the most skilful and suc- 
cessful teachers and disciplinarians in the public schools and other 
institutions of the city are females. 

Nothing could be more discreditable to the domestic and social 
training of our boys than to say of them that they are too rude and 
insubordinate to be entrusted to those whose muscular strength 
could not abide any struggle that a policeman might anticipate. It 
would be better to establish a school here and there specially for 
"roughs," and adapt the buildings and appurtenances as well as 
the teacher to their peculiar needs. We have seen more than one 
instance in which an overgrown boy — ill-governed, or ungoverned 
at home — has kept a Avliole school in a turmoil, and worn a sensi- 
tive woman's life out. Nothing is more obvious than the propriety 
and justice of depriving such of the abused privilege. 

In running our eye over the county reports, we notice that the 
relative value and success of the sexes, as teachers, is frequently 
brought to view : 

A large proportion of the teachers employed the past year were 
females ; and it is a gratifying fact that while they were fully equal 
to the male teachers in point of qualifications, they proved them- 
selves equally capable of teaching good schools.* 

We have employed 83 teachers, 15 females and 8 males ; and 
in the selection of them regard is had not only to the intellectual 
acquirements of an applicant, but also the ability to teach and 
govern. f 

Females generally are as well qualified as males, and their 
efforts are attended with as much practical success. J 

In literary qualifications and ability to teach and govern, they 
are, as a class, equal to males. § 

We have of good teachers quite as many females as males, in 
proportion to the numbers. || 

The prejudice against female teachers is gradually giving way, 
and the probability is that our schools in the future will be princi- 
pally taught by them.^ 

About two-thirds of the teachers employed during the last term 
were females ; young and inexperienced as they were, they did ex- 
ceedingly well.** 

The number of well-qualified female teachers was never so 
great as at the present time, and instances have not been wanting 
where female teachers, having succeeded well, are taking the 
places of male teachers, who have been dismissed for incapacity. 

* Adams. f Berks. J Cambria. § Clearfield. 

II Franklin. ^ Lawrence. ** Lycoming. 



70 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 

Whatever may hitherto have been said respecting 'woman's sphere,' 
it must now be conceded that the institution of common schools 
depends mainly upon our female teachers for support. If the in- 
stitution be sustained, to them will belong the glory.* 

All the teachers employed gave good satisfaction except fifteen, 
who should improve or quit the business. All the females em- 
ployed were successful, "f 

Many of our best female teachers are leaving the profession 
for more remunerative employment. The numerous mantua, mil- 
liner and tailoring establishments, together with printing offices, 
artists' galleries and clerkships offer greater pecuniary inducements 
than do our schools. J 

There must always be a formidable obstacle to raising up a class 
of men and women to be permanently occupied as teachers in Penn- 
sylvania schools so long as a large majority of the schools are 
in session for six months or less. If half the schools were kept in 
summer and the other half in winter, so that with an ordinary vaca- 
tion the same teacher might pass from one to the other, and so be 
sure of remunerative employment for nearly or quite the entire 
year, there would be some reason in asking him or her to make 
teaching a profession. But even then much larger wages must be 
paid, or all idea of competing with outside claims upon their ser- 
vices, may be abandoned. "Excellent teachers, there being no 
better in the State, taught last winter," says the superintendent of 
Monroe County, '•'■for sixteen dollars a month and boarded them- 
selves ; and to do this," he adds, "at a time when every branch of 
human industry is so well rewarded, and the price of all the neces- 
sities (necessaries) of life so high, is a shameful commentary on 
the public spirit of our school directors. The consequence of such 
a disgraceful state of things need not be told." 

The prevailing tone of the reports of county superintendents, 
though evidently guarded, forces us to the conclusion that a large 
number of teachers known to be incompetent are employed ; that 
with the majority it is a mere casual and temporary engagement; 
that the compensation is inadequate to command the services of 
qualified teachers, and that those who will work cheap are much 
surer of employment than those who can work well. 

One of the county§ superintendents laments the withdrawal from 
the corps of teachers of its most valuable members, and he ascribes 

* Tioga. ■\ Siiydcr. X Venango. ^ Lebanon. 



IN THE UNITED STATES — PENNSYLVANIA. 77 

it to the insufficiency of their compensation. He states that the 
school directors in most of the districts are accustomed to pay all 
teachers the same wages without regard to qualifications. A teacher 
who has had years of experience is placed on the same footing with 
a mere novice. He puts the case of one who has spent time and 
money to qualify himself for teaching as the work of his life, and 
who is estimated at no higher figure than those who teach because 
they have nothing else to do, and find it pleasant enough to spend 
the cold winter in a comfortable schoolroom engaged in what they 
call "school keeping," This state of things is certainly to be re- 
gretted, but is it not probable that directors in many cases lack the 
needful knowledge, or discrimination, or decision which would be 
requisite to a reform ? Does not the radical defect, disclosed in this 
and a thousand other forms, lie in the structure of the system ? 
In the endeavour to make it harmonize as far as possible with the 
character of our political institutions, do we not sacrifice the unity, 
directness and energy which a successful scheme of public schools 
demands ? We hear voices on every side like a multitude of waters, 
exclaiming against the suggestion that the people are not to be 
trusted to educate themselves. " If they have intelligence enough 
to choose their rulers, are they not competent to choose teachers 
for their children ?" it is asked. The little word if, in such a con- 
nection, is very significant. Whence does popular intelligence in 
our country spring ? Is it not from the daily public schools ? And 
if these are entrusted to incompetent and accidental teachers, how 
long will the stock of intelligence hold out ?* 

The most frequent failures noticed in the reports, are in the mat- 

* When Stouber, Pastor Oberlin's predecessor in the Ban de la Roche, first settled 
in that district he found the schoolhouse a miserable cottage, the scholars a num- 
ber of ragged children, and the master an infirm, crippled old man. Entering the 
cottage, Stouber said : 

"Are you the schoolmaster, my good friend?" 

" Yes, sir." 

" And what do you teach the children ?" 

" Nothing, sir." 

"Nothing! How's that?" 

" Because I knows nothing myself." 

" Why then are you put here as a schoolmaster 1" 

" Why, I had been taking care of the Walbach pigs for a great number of years, 
and when I became too old and infirm for that, they sent me here to take care of 
the children." 



lb THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 

ter of discipline or government. And this is perhaps the most 
difficult of all others to remedy. " The faculty to govern a school 
well, is," as the superintendent of Lancaster County remarks, "a 
rare possession. Observation and reflection Avill conduce to the 
acquisition of it, but real excellence in it is shown only by those 
Avho were 'born to govern.' " It is sometimes mentioned in the 
county reports, that young teachers who have never taught before, 
not unfrequently give better satisfaction to directors and parents 
than the older and more experienced teachers. Their success may 
be ascribed, sometimes perhaps, to the possession of this . faculty 
which age and experience rather impair than supply. Another 
observation of the Lancaster County authority is worthy to be 
pondered, viz. : that a proper attention to the cleanliness and 
cheerfulness of a schoolroom and a teacher's devotion to the interests 
of his school Avill, of themselves, secure a considerable degree of 
good order. It is surprising to what an extent order will beget 
order, especially among children and youth. 

Institutes and Normal Schools. — Among the agencies desio-ned 
to aid teachers in preparing themselves for their work as well as in 
prosecuting it, Pennsylvania has normal schools and institutes. 
Whatever credit may be due to the public authorities for the exist- 
ence of these agencies, they are not to be congratulated on their 
efficiency or fruits. Perhaps if they were employed with more 
energy and skill, we might see their suitableness and admire the 
spirit that prompted them. The normal schools of Pennsylvania 
are not under the control of the State. They are recognized as 
means set on foot by private parties or corporations for the supply 
of teachers, and they have received aid from the public treasury to 
the amount of nearly fifty thousand dollars ; but they are in no 
sense part and parcel of the government apparatus. And if they 
were, they could no more make skilful and successful teachers than 
theological seminaries can make successful ministers, or medical 
schools successful doctors. If the poor duped school children had 
the same choice of teachers that families have of a doctor or religious 
communities of a teacher, we should find many a man and woman, 
now lording it over a hplpless group of little ones in the cheerless 
schoolhouse, earning an lionest living in the field or the workshop. 
The most such institutions can do, is to afford candidates some facili- 
ties for becoming skilful in their profession. They cannot gauge 



IN THE UNITED STATES — PENNSYLVANIA. 79 

their wits nor predict with any certainty who will succeed and who 
will fail. 

For many years the need of preparatory schools for teachers has 
been asserted, and arrangements were made with several literary 
institutions to organize a department for this purpose. The State 
made annual grants to five colleges which were required to receive 
a stipulated number of students and prepare them to teach in the 
public schools ; but in point of fact they were incorporated with the 
college, and received no special training to fit them for their pro- 
posed employment. The beneficiaries under these provisions, were 
required to be citizens of Pennsylvania or the sons of citizens, and 
no advantages were extended to females. The experiment of a 
very few years showed conclusively that no important improvement 
would result from such an arrangement, and the organization of 
one or more normal schools was urged as a matter of absolute ne- 
cessity. 

In process of time, three such schools were opened in diiferent 
districts of the State, and we are told in the report for 1864, that 
they are all in a flourishing condition, and that scores of well quali- 
fied teachers are going out from them continually to take charge of 
our best schools.* Applications for graduates are made months in 
advance. Under the system of normal schools, large numbers of 
our teachers are being improved and our schools are being elevated, f 
and " the whole system is annually gaining in popularity." The 
crowds of students who are in constant attendance at the school, 
seem to indicate that it meets a great public want.J And it is 
added that three more normal schools are in contemplation. 

In the reports made by the trustees of these schools, we find 
some interesting items. The total cost of buildings, ground, furni- 
ture, &c., is over $123,000, and the incumbrances, $25,000. Of 
one of the schools it is stated that the expenditures exceed the in- 
come by about $1000, and of the other tAVO the remarkable fact is 
stated that the income balanced the expenses to a cent ! 

The number of instructors employed in all the schools is 30, 16 
males and 14 females. Only two of the reports give the cost of in- 

* Pages 31, 32. 

■j- We trust the normal school teachers will not allow any of their pupils to go 
out until they covenant never to use, or countenance the use of the phrases we have 
italicized, or their like. 

% Report of Normal School, Second District, Oct. 1864. 



80 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 

struction. The number of pupils registered in the three schools 
during the year was 1,075. Only one of the reports distinguishes 
the sexes, and that gives 175 males and 174 females. There is 
nothing (so far as we notice) to show the capacity of the several 
schools as to the number that could be received, nor what period of 
time the registered pupils remained, nor what has become of such 
as have left. One of the reports refers to the "ready employment 
which the graduates of the schools find as principals and teachers 
in prominent institutions of learning." And another mentions 
"the demand for teachers educated there,'" as being "general in 
almost all parts of the State." 

Passing from this very flattering representation of the condition 
of these training schools into the various districts of the State, we 
naturally look for some evidence of the change produced by intro- 
ducing into the lump some portion of such active leaven. We may 
reasonably expect the reports of county superintendents to distin- 
guish between the condition of schools and districts where this im- 
proved class of teachers find employment, and that of schools and 
districts not so favoured. But although nearly every one of the 
superintendents of the sixty-four counties, makes the qualifications 
and success of teachers a distinct item, the existence, within the 
bounds of the State, of such an institution as a normal school is 
scarcely recognized. 

The report from Beaver has the following paragraph : " We 
have some teachers at the normal school at Edinboro' now, and 
others will go soon." The report from Fayette says : " The nor- 
mal school at Millsboro' has been a profitable institution to us, not 
for the great number of teachers that have attended it from our 
county, but from the fact that most of those who have attended 
have come away with much improvement by which they are enabled 
to benefit other teachers in our institutes." Lancaster County 
alone gives a decided testimony to the advantages of the normal 
school at Millersville : "Many of our best teachers," says the re- 
port, "have had a course of instruction." Allusion is made to 
other special agencies for the education of teachers, of which five 
are in Columbia, and four in Northampton County. The report 
from Venango refers to the need of " good academics or schools in 
the county for the instruction of teachers, and, in the absence of 
these, urges teachers to attend the normal school," &c. Normal 



IN THE UNITED STATES — PENNSYLVANIA. 



81 



classes are mentioned with favour in the Somerset County report ; 
and a teachers' class in graded schools is referred to as a useful 
educational agency in the report from Susquehanna. Without de- 
tracting in the slightest degree from the value of the normal school 
system, we confidently submit that if it is entitled to the place 
which its friends claim for it in the educating machinery of this 
State, its influence should be much -more generally felt and defi- 
nitely revealed. 

It must be borne in mind that the great end proposed by the 
establishment of State normal schools is not the training of, here 
and there, a superior teacher, but the elevation of the wJioIe corjjs of 
teachers throughout the community. And for this purpose it is 
wisely provided that the normal pupils shall be drawn from the sev- 
eral school districts within the counties composing the normal school 
district in an equal proportion of the sexes. Though this would not 
equalize the privileges of the schools, it would secure a distri- 
bution over the territory represented, of whatever benefits were 
derived from attendance. It is obvious that pupils to be admitted 
"on district account," were first in view, and yet so ftfr as ap- 
pears not a single pupil had been received " on district account" at 
either of the schools. It would seem natural to expect in the re- 
ports from these schools, items like the folllowing : 













""* 


Mo . 


bflO '^ 








QJ J^ 







000 


.2 2 'S 








.Q.2 




S-3 

— a; 


^ '"■So 














^^ 




S " .a 






53 g 




bSj si 


■^ '^ IV 








o 




■5 


Eh 


II 


P a'" 


m 


Males, 16 to 18 ... 


11 









18 months 


2 





" 18 to 20 ... 


10 









2 years. 


6 


2 


'■' over 20 ... 


3 


24 


5 


5 


Full term 








Females, 14 to 16 . . . 


18 i 


5 




Full term 


6 


6 


'' 16 to 18 . . . 


21 




10 




18 months 


9 


6 


" over 18 . . . 


5 


44 


5 


20 


Full term 


11 






Such items would aid us in forming a correct judgment, not only 
of the adaptation of such institutions to the real wants of the pub- 
lic, but of the appreciation of them by the public. We should never 
imagine, from the tenor of the county reports for 1864, that any 
perceptible improvement has been wrought by such schools in the 
great body of teachers, or that any is expected from them in time 
to come. How far their influence may be felt for good by the few 



82 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCnOOL 

thousands in the excepted districts is another question. Our ijresent 
business is tvlth the scJiooIs that educate millions. 

District Institutes. — There is another auxiliary agency on which 
considerable dependence seems to be placed for the improvement 
of public school teachers. We mean district institutes. In Penn- 
sylvania, " the district institute is now as clearly a part of the 
machinery of the common school system as is the school itself."* 
If the Legislature regarded it in this light, it has been singu- 
larly remiss in making provision for its organization except that 
" two Saturdays of each month shall be appropriated to exercises 
or institutes for the improvement of the teachers of the district." 
The number of institutes organized in 1864 was six less than in 
1862, and from the superintendent's report for the former year, we 
infer that the obstacles to their success are by no means trivial. 
The law contemplates the opening of an institute in every district 
except where the number of teachers is too small, and then two 
districts may be combined. On the other hand, when the district 
is large or "broken by natural impediments," two institutes may 
be held. It is suggested by more than one county superintendent, 
that the school month is shortened by appropriating two Saturdays 
to this object, and that no corresponding advantages result to the 
schools. Such a suggestion implies rather a low estimate of the value 
of the institute. But even so small an abridgment is worthy of 
consideration if the whole term of the teacher's service to the Com- 
monwealth is to be only four or five months — while if the occupation 
is to be more permanent, so that his acquirements will enure to the 
public benefit, then whatever advantages the institute confers, 
would be well worth what it costs. Another suggestion of some 
weight is made, viz. : whether the institute might not better be 
continued for several successive days, and thus save the expense of 
time and money in frequent journeys. 

County Institutes, as they are called, are continued through 
several days, and seem to have been much more successful; but we do 
not find any provision of laAV authorizing them or directing the mode 
of conductinij them. A "normal institute" is also mentioned as 
a successful experiment, and a library is by several reports included 
in the appendages of an institute. Besides the implied distrust of 

* Common School Laws of Peiinsylvauia, with the decisions of the Supeiintcu- 
dents, &c., 1862, p. 18. 



IN THE UNITED STATES — PENNSYLVANIA. 83 

the efficiency of the district institutes to "vvhich we have referred, 
we should judge from the tenor of the reports of county superin- 
tendents that they were neither very useful nor very popular, though 
where they are conducted with tact and intelligence, and teachers 
go into them with a will, they can scarcely fail to bn profitable. 
Erom one county* we learn that "fully one-half of the institutes 
were practically failures," but the failure is ascribed "not to the 
system or the directors, but to the teachers, who could not appreciate 
the advantages to be derived" from them. They could scarcely be 
expected to appreciate that of the value of which they have had no 
opportunity to judge. If an institute is properly organized and 
conducted with skill, no teacher in attendance, who is worthy of 
the name, will need an exhortation to induce him to attend an- 
other. "Good wine needs no bush" says the proverb. 

Some of the reports refer to the mode of conducting institutes 
as being too often left to young and inexperienced teachers, the 
time being employed in drilling the members in a mechanical 
routine rather than in the theory and practice of teaching. To 
some boards of directors the utility of institutes is so doubtful that 
they would have the law modified, so as to make the holding of 
them optional with the directors. It is stated that in districts 
where a forfeiture of one day's wages is incurred by absence, the 
attendance is generally regular. " Where the dollar fine is imposed, 
the teachers always attend,"f but where there is not this incentive 
"it is in some cases quite impossible to secure an attendance suffi- 
cient to enter into any exercises. "J 

Some would increase the penalty for non-attendance by dis- 
qualifying the delinquent from further employment in the district; 
but the only practical and efficient method of bettering the system 
is to make the institutes more plainly useful, and to adopt and 
rigidly maintain a standard in examinations for a certificate, 
which shall render the use of the institute or some equivalent means 
of improvement, indispensable to success. People are not apt to 
love to do what is against their will. Where there are true teachers 
there seems to be no difficulty in awakening an interest; but, un- 
fortunately, they are not the parties that chiefly need the stimulus 
of such means. 

* AUcgban}'. -}• Montour. J Bucks. 



84 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 

One director betrays the need of a lesson or two in grammar 
when he tells us that " of the institute as an efficient agency in 
bringing out the teacher few if any venture to dispute." The dol- 
lar agency would probably beat it. In another report we have the 
singular statement that there is "a disposition on the part of some 
of the best qualified teachers so to perform the duties appertaining 
to the institute as to turn the whole thing into a farce."* It would 
not surprise us to learn that the farce was the production of more 
responsible parties, while the teachers were involuntary spectators. 

From one county comes the complaint that while institutes have 
been held in about half the districts the time of the teachers has 
been mostly spent in gossip. f Some of the reports refer to the 
poorer districts, where the schools are open but for a short time 
and under the care of inferior teachers, as chiefly deficient in the 
proper appreciation of institutes ; but others charge a like or 
greater indifference upon favoured districts. " The only districts 
known to have neglected the institute wholly or in part, are of that 
class in Avhicli the teachers enjoy the advantages of the longest 
term and highest salaries in the county. "| " They (the institutes) 
have proved a failure in every district except one in the county."§ 
The expression is quite frequent in the reports from county officers 
that the system of institutes is not regarded favourably by the 
people and that the imperative requirements of law alone keep them 
in existence. " Public oj^inion is against them, and but for the 
law they would be abandoned. "I| In some instances they are dis- 
couraged and oi^posed even by boards of directors.^ 

Upon a review of all that the reports disclose touching this 
item, we should infer that very decided advantages might be de- 
rived from the organization of institutes where the number of 
earnest, enterprizing and intelligent teachers rendered them least 
necessary ; and where some leading spirit can be found to give order 
and life to them. Often, however, they would need to be conducted 
without aid or countenance from the school authorities of the 
district and in spite of their indiiferencc, if not in opposition to 
their wishes. The spirit of the body of teachers must be buoyant 
enough to endure some personal sacrifice and inconvenience, or 
their organization will be worse than useless. As at present con- 

* Chester. f Luzerne. J Northumberland. 

^ PiliL", II Sullivan. f Venango and Wayne. 



IN THE UNITED STATES — PENNSYLVANIA, 85 

ducted, with some very notable exceptions, we think no one could 
regard them as entitled to reliance for the improvement and eleva- 
tion of the methods of teaching. So that neither normal schools 
nor institutes — however useful in theory — seem to have been thus 
far of great value in preparing any considerable number of teachers 
of the daily public school of Pennsylvania for their work. 

SclioolJiouses. — Perhaps a still more pertinent test of the popu- 
lar estimation of the public schools of the State is found in the 
character and condition of the sclioolhouses and thein appendages. 
And 

1. As to site. This, as we have seen, is determined by the board 
of directors, who have sole authority in the premises ; and although 
it is obviously proper to ascertain and to respect public sentiment 
in the matter, there is no obligation to do so. The taste, intelli- 
gence and judgment of each board of directors have, therefore, a 
fair field to manifest themselves, and the site is quite closely con- 
nected with the success of the school itself. The aggregate expense 
of schoolhouses in 1863-'64 was little short of $400,000, which was 
$20,000 less than in 1863. 

To afford every facility to those entrusted with providing build- 
ings, a system of schoolhouse architecture has been prepared and 
published at the expense of the State, which it is supposed will be 
consulted of course as to the style of building, &c. Yet it is the 
subject of bitter complaint that schoolhouses are often put up with- 
out the remotest regard to the comfort, health or pleasure of the 
children; while the site itself is selected without the slightest re- 
gard to salubrity or attractiveness. Sometimes it is a bleak hill- 
side, hot in summer and all but inaccessible in winter ; sometimes 
it is in a swampy ; here on waste land, or in some useless angle of 
the highway ; and there in a corner of a field, without a foot of 
playground, or an inch of room for an out-house or a place on which 
to deposit fuel; the lots unfenced, and not a thought bestowed on 
the question whether site or building is agreeable or healthful to 
teachers or pupils. 

The difficulty of obtaining a suitable site, even when the people 
would like one, is also very formidable in some districts. Owners 
of land are said to regard it as "a desecration of the soil" to build 
a schoolhouse upon it ! The consequence is that it is often thrust 
into some gap in the fence, opened for that purpose upon the 
7 



86 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 

premises of some magnanimous citizen upon stipulations like the 
following: 1. That as soon as the house is completed, the fence 
shall be joined thereto so that the house shall form a part of the 
fence, and thus save one or two lengths of rails, which will be use- 
ful somewhere else on the farm. 2. No pupil to be allowed to climb 
over the fence; throw stones at the apple-trees adjacent to the 
same; or pick up any of the fruit that may chance to fall on the 
schoolhouse side ! 3. At the expiration of 33 years the land to 
revert to the^owner or his representatives with the building thereon 
"to have and to hold."* 

The State superintendent's report does not dwell much in detail 
on this topic, but we gather sundry interesting facts from the re- 
ports of county superintendents, some of whom evidently entertain 
just and liberal ideas on the subject; but their constituents, in many 
cases, either misapprehend the use to which the buildings are to be 
put, or they are too close-fisted to provide such as are adapted to 
it. We start with the opinion of the superintendent of Alleghany 
County that "if there is one public building in the district more 
pleasantly located, more comfortably arranged, better Avarmed and 
more attractive in its general appearance and more elevating in its 
influence than diny other, that building should be the district school- 
house." The site and out-buildings have almost as much to do 
with these features as the main structure, but our extracts will 
embrace both. 

During a large portion of the time the schools are open the mud 
around nearly all the houses is too deep for the comfort, cleanliness 
or health of teachers or scholars. f 

About 80 (of 183) houses are deficient and unhealthy in their 
construction. J 

There are 173 (school) houses in the county, and at least 75 of 
them occupy sites that are entirely unsuitable. They seem to have 
been placed where they are, because the ground they stand on could 
be put to no other possible use. The health of pupils, beauty of 
location, convenience of access, shade and suitable playground, 
have been entirely overlooked or uncared for; and all over the 
county, on bleak hill-tops, or steep mountain-sides, in rugged ravines 
or swampy flats, may be seen these monuments to the carelessness 
or incompetency of those who placed them there. It may be re- 
garded as a fortunate fact that most of them are rotting down, and 
must soon be replaced by new ones.§ 

* Luzerne. f Armstrong. J Beaver. ^ Bedford. 



IN THE UNITED STATES — PENNSYLVANIA. 87 

Nearly half the schoolhouses stand on ground of which the pre- 
sent boards of directors have no title papers ! Only five deeds of 
school property are recorded in the county.* 

There are ,120 schoolhouses in the county, 30 of which are so 
totally unfit that the comfort, health or convenience of the pupils 
attending them is scarcely consulted in a single respect. Only 30 
of the 120 are provided with the necessary out-buildings ; 31 are 
partially provided, and 50 are without any.f 

Of 336 schoolhouses in the county, 35 are unfit for use, and 112 
are poor.!| 

Sixty-four houses are very poor, and at least 30 of them are 
entirely unfit to be occupied. § 

Whole number of schoolhouses in the county 148 ; unfit for use, 
16; unsupplied with means of ventilation, 122; unprovided with 
out-buildings, 101. || 

Of 295 schoolhouses in the county, 47 are very good, 55 good, 
89 middling, 62 poor, and 42 very poor and unfit for use.T[ 
The number of buildings entirely unfit for use is about 35.** 
There are ten schoolhouses unfit for use and positively injurious 
to both pupils and teacher. The number not provided with out- 
buildings of any kind is 31; with indifferent ones, 38; and with 
suitable ones 29.f -f 

Twenty-four houses are unfit for school purposes, if it is con- 
sidered that disease, deformity and disordered intellect is (are) the 
result of crowding from 50 to 80 children into a small, cold, dark, 
damp^ ill-ventilated and dreary looking hovel. Some of the out- 
are in a most shameful condition. J J 

Of 172 schoolhouses in the county, 57 may be considered good, 
60 middling, and 55 poor or unfit. §§ 

A number of schoolhouses in the county are in a miserable con- 
dition — a disgrace to their respective neighbourhoods. Some, of 
these are in prominent places, surrounded by a thrifty, aye, 
wealthy community. What a tale they tell to travellers passing. 
, them!|||| 

Number of schoolhouses unfit to be occupied about 25. ^"[f 
Of 204 school- buildings, 93 are medium and 31 unfit for the 
schools they are intended to accommodate.*** 

We have 65 schoolhouses in the county, 30 of which are unfit 
for school purposes.ftt 

Three new schoolhouses were built last year after models fur- 
nished by the State on good and valuable lots, but the only out- 
building to either of them is a coalhouse.JJJ 

* Bedford. f Blair. + Bradford. § Bucks. || Cambria. 

^ Chester. ** Clarion. ff Clinton. JJ Cumberland. §| Dauphin. 

;||| Erie. f^ Fayette. *** Franklin. fff Fulton. JJJ Jefferson. 



88 TUE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 

Of the 01 sclioolliouses in the county, 33 are good, and 28 wholly 
unfit.* 

Entirely unfit for school purposes, 19. f 

Whole number of schoolhouses in the county, 230.; unfit to be 
occupied, 75. J 

Only 33 per cent, of our schoolhouses are fit for use. In Middle 
Smithfield and Eldred there are 20 schoolhouses, of which 18 are 
unfit for the use intended. It is a disgrace to those districts that 
such nuisances should exist.§ 

Fifteen of the schoolhouses are positively unfit for use. One 
district is unfortunate in not having a single respectable school- 
house in the whole township, though ranking among the first in 
the county in point of resources. One schoolhouse is nothing more 
than a heap of stones and mortar. Only one of the nineteen school- 
houses in one township has the necessary out-buildings. A similar 
defect exists in several other districts. || 

If these out-buildings are essential to the cultivation of habits of 
propriety and delicacy among children of the same family, how can 
they be dispensed with at the public schoolhouse, where 40 or 50 
children of different families daily associate ? 

Eleven houses are unfit to be occupied as the training places of 
youth, five of which may be regarded as nuisances.^ 

The number of worthless schoolhouses is very large. Out-build- 
ings are entirely wanting to at least half of the schools. Standing 
at the doors of some of the miserable hovels where children are kept 
housed six hours a day for six months of the year, I have beheld 
elegant farmhouses surrounded by hundreds of broad and fertile 
acres, or beautiful village lots and storehouses, valued at thousands 
of dollars apiece. And should not good, comfortable schoolhouses, 
with grounds properly fenced and properly improved, be provided 
for all our children?** 

A school lot, neatly fenced, with suitable out-buildings upon it, 
"Avould be a novelty in this county. When shall we sec the neat, 
commodious house, nestled among the trees, protected and cared 
for, instead of the sun-burnt, neglected and dilapidated fabric which 
has stood the base assaults of many a jack-knife and 3'oung cata- 
pult ?tt 

Between 15 and 20 schoolhouses are unfit for use.:[:t 

Fifty-eight houses are unfit to be occu23ied.§§ 

Twenty-two houses unfit for usc.|||| » 

Thirty-three houses unfit for school purposes. ^'^ 

This brief survey of the condition of the school-buildings in dif- 

* Juniata. f Lycoming. J Mercer. ^ Munroc. || Northampton. 

^ Pilve. ** Tioga. ff Venango. J+ Warren. §| Washington. 

nil Wayne. 1[T[Wyoming. 



IN THE UNITED STATES — PENNSYLVANIA. 89 

ferent parts of the State, indicates Avitli considerable accuracy the 
popuhir appreciation of the schools themselves. Of course there 
are reports from the same or other districts of improvements, often 
highly creditable. But suppose the edifices for the celebration of 
religious worship were, to the same extent, allowed to stand from 
year to year unfit for use, what would be thought of our religious 
habits and sympathies ? Or what of our judicial tribunals if our 
courthouses were equally neglected? Or of our domestic duties and 
enjoyments if a similar report could be made of our private dwell- 
ings ? Are not the encomiums passed so frequently in these reports 
upon the public spirit and forethought which have now and then 
been shown in the erection of a respectable schoolhouse on a suit- 
able site and with proper appendages, a tacit charge of a want of 
these virtues or graces upon the numerous districts whose school- 
houses are publicly stigmatized as nuisances ? 

Visits hy Parents and others. — -And in this connection we may 
as well say what we have to say respecting the indifference of 
parents to the prosperity of the schools in their neighbourhood, 
which the report before us laments and reproves. The State super- 
intendent dwells on this topic at great length, and does not hes- 
itate to say that "the common schools are suffering for want 
of parental co-operation, perhaps more than from any other cause." 
The importance of such co-operation in securing the punctual and 
continuous attendance of their children can scarcely be exaggerated. 
It can hardly be expected, however, so long as neither the school- 
house nor the school has attractions to their eye ; but would 
be absolutely repulsive if it were not that it serves as a cage for the 
children while they are out of harm's way. Make the schoolhouse a 
cheerful, wholesome, attractive place, well furnished with suitable 
out-buildings and sufficient room for needful recreation; and let an 
intelligent, skilful, conscientious teacher take the charge of 40 or 
50 of the children of the neighbourhood, and there will be little need 
of stimulating the co-operation of the parents. They would not be 
able to coax their boys and girls to stay at home. Attract the 
lamb and the old sheep will be sure to follow. 

But as to the stress which is laid on the visits of parents to the 
school we cannot bring ourselves to believe that it is not widely 
misplaced. The superintendent thinks if parents would visit the 
schools frequently they would know whether they are what they 



90 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 

should be; whether the teachers should be commended and sup- 
ported or -whether their course should be disapproved.* And the 
report of one of the countyf superintendents speaks of the great 
good that might be accomplished " if parents would visit the schools 
for a few hours in each month of the session by observing the 
method of teaching and the conduct of the pupils, and by en- 
couraging the teacher in his arduous duties," &c. 

That an occasional call at the public school by intelligent and judi- 
cious persons who have the capacity to discriminate between teachers 
who know their duty and do it and the empirics and impostors who 
palm themselves off for that service, knowing themselves to be en- 
tirely unfit for it, — would be of great value, no one will deny. And 
doubtless the infrequency of calls by such persons results from the 
general impression that the system has its appointed administrators, 
and that a visit, however well meant, might be an intrusion. The 
great majority of parents would find it very awkward to make their 
appearance in a school while in session unless it were to upbraid 
or pommel the teacher for some wholesome discipline of a pet boy ; 
and few comparatively would be able to judge, and still fewer would 
be disposed to express a judgment, of the methods of teaching or 
government, or to advise or suggest improvements, however de- 
sirable they might seem. The truth is that children should come 
from home to school with the principles of subordination to authority 
well established, and with such dispositions towards others that the 
teacher's task in the regulation of his little commonwealth should 
be comparatively light. Here is the proper province and function 
of the parent, and not in the schoolroom. The teacher's ofiice is 
to instruct and exercise the intellectual faculties a-nd combine, in 
proper vigour and harmony, the elements of future character. And 
one would almost as soon think of urging parents to look well to 
the prescriptions of their physician, and be present Avhen he ex- 
amines the patient in order to throw in a word of counsel if he 
betrays any Avant of skill, as of summoning parents to the school- 
house to look after a teacher, who, by the proper ofiicers, and (as 
we must presume) after proper scrutiny of his fitness, has been ap- 
pointed to teach "the young ideas" of their children "how to 
shoot." 

We apprehend that ninety-nine teachers in a hundred would tell 
* Report, p. 30. f Elk. 



IN THE UNITED STATES — PENNSYLVANIA. 91 

US that if parents will send their brood to school punctually and 
regularly, with clean faces, hands, feet and clothes, and well trained 
to habits of obedience, they will cheerfully absolve them from any 
obligation to attend the school in person, and will moreover engage 
to teach their offspring as faithfully and treat them as kindly as if 
their parents were sitting beside them. If the positive requisitions 
of law are met by duly elected officers, as much visiting will be done 
as is for the welfare of the school. 

The exhortation to clergymen to resume the habit of visiting the 
public schools, which has been of late years relinquished, would 
probably fail to produce the effect which the superintendent antici- 
pates. There was a time, undoubtedly, when clergymen concerned 
themselves largely in the oversight of the public schools, and in 
some parts of the country they are still selected for examiners and 
visitors. But since the system has become incorporated with the 
government machinery, and is open to the jealousy that so sen- 
sitively watches all approaches of the ecclesiastical to the civil 
power, their influence has very naturally been somewhat neutral- 
ized. It is not to be supposed that the religious impression made 
by a clerical visit should be otherwise than superficial and transient. 
If the teacher's daily deportment and conversation do not confirm 
and deepen such an impression, it will be found like the morning 
cloud and the early dew. On the other hand, if the teacher is im- 
bued with proper reverence for God and His ordinances, his influ- 
ence will descend on the youngest heart in the school like the small 
rain upon the tender herb. 

Ciraded Schools. — One of the means much relied upon for eleva- 
ting the standard of instruction, is grading the schools — that is, 
organizing two or more departments under a general principal, with 
a teacher for each department, so that pupils may be advanced from 
a lower to a higher grade according to their proficiency. The 
power to establish schools of different grades is vested in the direc- 
tors and controllers of districts, and in the interpretation of the 
law by the superintendent, the duty to establish them is as obliga- 
tory as the duty to establish any schools at all. 

There can be no doubt that a much more systematic and thorough 
course of instruction may be given to 100 children by assigning to 
one the whole work of teaching the art of reading and spelling, 
to another the whole work of teaching writing ; to a third the 



92 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 

wliole work of teaching geography, and so of grammar and arith- 
metic, instead of committing them to one teacher and expecting 
him or her to instruct in all these branches. And a still farther 
advantage would result from their occupying separate rooms for 
the purpose. But the practical question is whether the branches 
required by law to be taught in the public schools, cannot be taught 
with sufficient system and thoroughness by competent teachers 
under the ordinary arrangement of classes? If cities or populous 
towns are able, by self-imposed taxes, to maintain schools in wdiich 
the highest attainments in literature and science are brought within 
reach of the pupils, no one can reasonably object. But the obliga- 
tions of the law fall much short of such a system. A certain mea- 
sure of education is assumed to be indispensable to the public 
welfare under such political institutions as ours, and to secure it the 
Legislature has imposed on the people at large the duty of providing 
gratuitous instruction for all who will receive it in six specified 
branches, though other branches may be introduced by directors or 
controllers. We apprehend that if all the academies, normal 
schools, high schools and graded schools in Pennsylvania were 
abolished to-day, and the public schools of the State could at once 
be put into the hands of a body of teachers competent (in the full 
sense of that word) to teach the six required branches, viz. : or- 
thography, reading, writing, English grammar, geography and 
arithmetic, and these only, the true and legitimate purposes of our 
system of public education would be farther advanced in the next 
twelve months, than it will be in five years with all the superior 
grades of instruction in existence, and the great body of common 
schools continued under their present auspices. In other words, 
what the laAV contemplates and requires is very imperfectly and 
superficially done, while the interest and glory of our educational 
schemes are concentrated in the few higher organizations whose 
direct influence is at least greatly circumscribed. 

When the ordinary public school was the " people's college," a 
good knowledge of these elementary branches was generally diffused 
throughout the community. Here and there one head towered 
above the rest and was marked for the academy and college. But 
when it came to be thought important that our boys and girls should 
be educated at the public charge in the languages, in philosophy, 
in political economy, in short in the highest branches of learning, 
it is not perhaps surprising that the humble service of the public 



IN THE UNITED STATES — PENNSYLVANIA. 93 

school should fall far in the rear, and Avhile, in the country at large, 
there may be ten men and women now that can read Latin and 
French and interpret the Federal Constitution where there was for- 
merly but one, there are probably a hundred now that cannot write 
a letter correctly, where there were ten before. So that, in fact, 
the people's colleges have not proved colleges for the people, but 
only for a privileged few, — the tax for their support being imposed 
alike on us all. 

We shall not be understood to complain of any measure of liber- 
ality in encouraging all classes of people to seek the highest im- 
provement of their capacities. The only question we raise is whether 
it shall be at the expense of the public at large, while comparatively 
few are able to share the advantages, or whether the main strength 
of the government and its deepest sympathy shall be given to im- 
prove the ordinary daily public school to the highest degree, while 
private interest and munificence are made responsible for the higher 
grade ? Were it clearly shown that the public schools reap the 
benefit of the high and normal school in any good measure proportion- 
ate to their cost, the view just taken might be modified, but no such 
benefit is disclosed in the report before us. Ifc may be very true 
that it would be " cheaper to build one house large enough to accom- 
modate 100 pupils and employ teachers for them when properly 
graded, than it is to purchase ground, erect and furnish two houses 
that will be convenient for fifty pupils, each with a teacher compe- 
tent to teach well all the branches from the alphabet to the sciences, 
and the higher departments of mathematics."* But the great end 
contemplated by the law is to diffuse a knowledge of elementary 
branches. It is to furnish a schoolhouse and a teacher to every 
neighbourhood where there are a sufiicient number of children to 
constitute a school. It is that every individual, between 5 and 21, 
may have the opportunity to be ivell taught in reading, spelling, 
Avriting, grammar, geography and arithmetic. So that so far as 
these branches are essential to the discharge of the ordinary duties of 
life, no one shall be without a knowledge of them who is willing and 
capable to be taught. Hence to afford the means of acquiring such 
knowledge is properly regarded as an obligation of the Common- 
wealth. If this elementary work is well done, we shall have an in- 
telligent community ; and there will be no lack of means for those 
who are disposed to go farther or look higher. What we maintain 
* Superintendent's Report, p. 29. 



94 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 

is, that the expense of their advancement should not be charged to 
the great body of citizens. 

Text-hooks. — The law, as we have seen, makes it the duty of the 
directors or controllers to meet annually before the opening of the 
schols to decide not only what branches of learning shall be taught, 
but what books shall be used and as " uniformity in text-books is 
essential to successful teaching," it is obvious that this is one of 
the most important of their duties. There is nothing to prevent a 
change of text-books every year, nor to prevent a different set of 
text-books in each district. And as the expense of providing such 
books is thrown upon the parents (except when too indigent to 
furnish them), the door is opened for great abuses. When it is con- 
sidered how ingenious and (often) unscrupulous are the shifts to 
which publishers and venders of school books resort, and how sharp 
is the competition to obtain a foothold for a new series of readers, 
geographies or arithmetics, we may be pardoned for doubting 
whether the barrier which most boards of directors present to impo- 
sitions in this form, is of much value. The wholesome provisions 
of the law touching the sale of books by school officers are sufficiently 
peremptory, but those who are familiar with the subject need not 
be told how easily they may be evaded if the disposition exists. 
Directors have many interests outside of their school duties ; and 
"log-rolling," as it is called, has found its way even into their 
precincts. 

If the history were written, of the introduction to our schools of 
books out of the profits of which many a fortune has been made, it 
would disclose a network of wires which only very cunning hands 
know how to pull. 

It was the conviction of several persons, many years ago, that 
the only way to check the growing evil of an endless variety and 
multiplication of common school text-books,* was for the State to 

* " Many years since," says a correspondent, "it became my duty as a citizen of 
this free republic (the highest offices being open to the most obscure individual) to 
serve on the School Committee of a country town. There were 59 scholars enrolled, 
and the book account stood thus — arithmetics 29, of 7 varieties, viz. ; — 

Daboll, ........ 7 

Smith, ........ 7 

Pike Abridged, . . . . . . .5 

(-olburn, ....... 3 

Title page out, . . . . . . .3 

Title page out, but a different book, .... 2 

Title page out, but a different book, . . . .2 

Reading books, thirteen varieties ; spelling books, eleven, and grammars, four." 



IN THE UNITED STATES — PENNSYLVANIA. 95 

take the matter into its own hands ; and we believe a plan was 
sketched with some care for accomplishing the object. It embraced 
only the six elementary branches (as we learn), which are contem- 
plated by the school law. The title, size and price of each book 
was fixed upon an estimate. Proper persons were to be employed 
to make the books and to adapt them to the schools of the State, 
familiarizing the pupils, by reading lessons, with its history ; begin- 
ning their geographical inquiries at home, and making reasonably 
sure of a knowledge of things around them, in their daily life, how- 
ever ignorant they might be of the interior of Africa or of the 
moon. The State was to own the copyright, plates, &c., to have 
the manufacturing done by contract and the stock deposited in some 
central depot from which alone the books could be supplied and 
that at the mere cost of making and selling. The interdiction of 
the use of any other books of *the same class or kind in the public 
schools to be peremptory, and thus shut the door against all abuses 
and impositions in this form. 

If our memory is not at fault, this scheme was broached to G-ov- 
ernor Porter, who then occupied the Executive chair, and by him 
regarded favourably, but referred to the Secretary of State, who was 
ex-officio superintendent of public schools. That gentleman was 
unfortunately possessed with the idea that it was a new scheme of 
some shrewd Yankee to foist his wares upon the department, and 
he would not lend an ear or an eye to it. " Yes, yes, I know all 
about it," said the impatient official. " We have these applications 
pressed upon us every day." In vain was it said, " but, Mr. Secre- 
tary, this is apian for avoiding such annoyances." "Ah yes," 
" that's the story they always tell, and I do not wish to hear another 
syllable on the subject." So ended the interview and so ended 
what was and is believed to be a feasible and sensible scheme for 
effecting an important reform in our school economy. 

It is scarcely to be believed that one in ten of the persons to 
whom the duty of prescribing studies and selecting text-books is 
referred, is in any degree qualified for such a service. True, they 
.are expected to consult with teachers, but when it is considered how 
large a proportion of teachers are novices, few of them having ever 
had occasion or opportunity to examine and compare books, or ex- 
perience to guide them to any just judgment of the requisites of a 
text-book on any subject, we may well question whether their aid 
will express any more than a cipher added to a cipher. 



96 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 

Morals and Iteligion. — The county returns present the somewhat 
remarkable statement, that the reading of the Scriptures has been 
discontinued in 1377 schools in which they were read in 1862. It 
would be worth something as an item of experience if 1377 teachers 
of only ordinary intelligence would give us their reason for laying 
aside such a practice, if indeed it is of their own motion and not an 
authoritative suggestion or command. We must suppose that the 
reason assigned was the same in a large proportion of cases, and 
we cannot flatter ourselves that where Scripture reading is for any 
cause abandoned, some other method of moral teaching is perhaps 
substituted, for we are expressly told that the number of schools in 
which moral instruction was given in 1864 by otlier means than 
Scripture readinf/, was nearly 1700 less than the number in 1862. 
We are inclined to think that even the foregoing statement gives a 
larger place to Scriptural instruction than it really occupies, for in 
the reports of county superintendents, we notice this item is fre- 
quently entirely omitted. In others a somew^hat loose phraseology 
is employed, such as, " The Bible is read in about four-fifths of 
our schools ;" "in all but a very few;" " in nearly all the schools," 
&c. We are left in doubt whether the 72 schools in Adams County 
for example, in which " the Scriptures arc occasionally read either 
by teachers or pupils," would be regarded as Scripture-reading 
schools as well as the ten in which that service is had every morn- 
ing accompanied with prayer. How would the schools of Green 
County be ranked of which it is said, " Moral instruction prevails 
to some extent in many schools, but Ave regret that so important a 
part of our education does not receive a higher degree of atten- 
tion?" 

We are far from regarding the reading of the Scriptures or prayer 
as exercises, necessarily and of themselves, conducive to the moral 
improvement of a daily public school. On the contrary, we have 
no doubt that oftentimes the irreverence and frivolity which are 
allowed when the reading occurs, and the inappropriate manner 
and matter of the devotional exercise produce a very unhappy im- 
pression. No public school teacher is fit for his place, in our country, 
who does not recognize the Supreme Being as the only proper 
object of religious Avorship, and Holy Scripture as the revelation 
of His will. The "understanding" Avhieh he is called to educate, 
is "given" by "the inspiration of the Almighty." The child's 



IN THE UNITED STATES — PENNSYLVANIA. 97 

intellectual and spiritual natures are inseparably one. Not a day 
will liis pupils pass under his instruction that some lasting impres- 
sion will not be made on this complex being, — now a heedless, play- 
ful child, or a giddy, self-confident youth ; but far out on his or 
her future life, present school incidents of an apparently trivial 
nature, will be seen to have given shape to the character and di- 
rection to the career of each individual. 

If the teacher feels in any proper degree the responsibleness of 
his position, he will gladly avail himself of the most powerful mo- 
tives and principles that can influence the human heart, and which 
are revealed to us only "in the volume of the book." He w^ill 
carefully select and reverently read or cause to be read, such por- 
tions of it as are best adapted to the purpose in view, and he will 
so open to their minds the reasonableness and satisfaction of seek- 
ing help from the Omnipotent, wisdom from the Omniscient, and 
protection and blessing from the Omnipresent, that they will not 
only kneel with him before the throne of grace, but will unite in his 
simple and well considered petitions for "♦such things as are requi- 
site and necessary as well for the body as the soul." An exercise 
of this kind, rarely occupying more than from three to five minutes 
and perhaps a verse or two of a hymn in joyful notes, could never 
fail to have a most auspicious influence on the docility and disci- 
pline of a school, which would be diffused thence through the whole 
neighbourhood. 

There may be difficulty in supplying all our schools with teach- 
ers who would be competent (were they disposed) to give proper 
prominence to the religious elenient ; but that is no argument against 
making the possession of both the disposition and the qualification 
a point of inquiry where a teacher applies for a certificate, leaving 
the measure of its importance to those Avhom the law and the voice 
of the people have entrusted with the ofiice of examiners. 

The influence of this kind which is so desirable, is not to be de- 
rived from any extraneous sources. The teachers and they alone 
can exert it. And it must be, not simply the punctual observance 
of a season, but the natural development of a, feeling predominant 
in their life and evinced in a consistent Christian example and a 
gentle, persuasive carriage day by day. "We may add in this con- 
nection, that in what we have said on the subject of clerical visits, 
Ave shall not be understood as detracting from their value. But we 



98 • THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 

apprehend the professional character of such visits would give them 
a perfunctory aspect, and, as before intimated, it would be no easy 
matter to avoid what savours of sectarian predilections. 

The grand agencies by which society is moulded and preserved, 
are very distinctly defined. The Home provides for the earliest 
physical and moral wants of the human being ; gives the first lessons 
in all knowledge, and generally determines the complexion of the 
after-life. The State being interested in the intelligence, order, 
industry and thrift of all its citizens, requires places of instruction 
to be provided in which every child may obtain such a share of good 
learning as is needful for the ordinary business of life, and it ex- 
pects such principles to be inculcated as will make them submissive 
to lawful authority, and sober and exemplary in their civil and 
social relations. To this end they should assuredly be taught that 
the supreme authority is in the Creator and Governour of the 
world, and that earthly potentates are but his vicegerents and 
subject to his law. Whatever inspires the youthful mind (and es- 
pecially the American youthful mind) with deference to authority, 
obedience to conscience and the cultivation of a lofty principle of 
integrity and social obligation, is a most essential element of our 
daily public school instruction. 

Entertaining these views and considering the meagreness of the 
County reports on the subject, we are agreeably disappointed to ob- 
serve here and there in them, the most unqualified testimony to 
the importance of mingling religious and moral with secular in- 
struction. 

The school in which no moral ihstruction is given is very de- 
fective. Without this element in education, it will be a curse in- 
stead of a blessing to its possessor.* 

Our schools must be nurseries of religion and morality, and to 
this end we must seek as instructors of the youth, those who are 
thoroughly imbued with religious feelings and sentiments. f 

The fact that the moral culture of youth determines, to a great 
extent, the use to be made of the increased power for good or evil 
gained in the acquisition of knowledge, cannot be too fully impressed 
upon the minds of all.| 

The Scriptures are regularly read in every school in the 
county as a devotional exercise, being the first lesson in the morn- 
ing. When done, as it should ahvays be, in a proper manner and 
spirit, it never fails of producing good results, and is one of the 

* Beaver. f Butler. X Bradford. 



IN THE UNITED STATES — PENNSYLVANIA. 99 

most effectual means of developing the intellectual faculties. It 
should take precedence of all other instruction.* 

The importance if not the absolute necessity of a system of re- 
ligious training in our public schools, becomes every year more 
apparent. * * * The clashing of different religious creeds and the 
risk of sectarian discussion is far less to be feared than the absence 
of all religious instruction, f 

We are happy to add that the reports from the Counties of Erie 
and Lancaster show an increase of the number of Scripture-read- 
ing schools. 

We take our leave of the daily public schools of Pennsylvania 
with the irresistible conviction that they are not contributing their 
share to the virtue and intelligence of the country. | Our survey 
has not embraced the districts under special legislation, but we 
apprehend their influence is scarcely felt upon the educational in- 
terests of the State at large. If we cannot raise the daily public 
school to a position that shall win the respect and confidence of 
the great body of the people, we shall have a steady increase of 
ignorance and its inseparable companions — vice and poverty. If 
it can be shown that the multiplication of high and normal schools 
in a few localities will inspire the mass of the community with 
warmer sympathies towards the schools in their respective neigh- 
bourhood, and excite a heartier co-operation in making them all 
that they should be, so far they should be recognized as auxil- 
iaries to the great work of the Commonwealth ; but the report before 
us affords no sufficient ground for such a recognition at present. 

* Lawrence. f Huntingdon. 

J Fer contra. — One of our most influential city newspapers speaks (January 15, 
1866) of "our common school system as modelled on such an excellent basis, and 
so successful that liberal appropriation should be made to sustain it." 



100 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 



THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL IN NEW YORK. 



SYNOPSIS OF LAWS. 

State Siqjerintendent. — This officer is elected by joint ballot of 
the Senate and Assembly for three years, at a salary of $2,500 per 
annum. He may appoint a deputy at a salary of $1,500, and three 
clerks whose united salaries shall not exceed $3,000. The super- 
intendent is required to visit schools, and certify the qualifications 
of teachers, and his certificate shall be conclusive evidence of moral 
character, learning and ability to teach. He may issue temporary 
licenses to teachers, restricted to a particular district, and for a 
period not exceeding six months. He may, for cause shown, annul 
certificates of district school commissioners and normal school di- 
plomas, and may remove any school officer for sufficient cause. He 
apportions and distributes the moneys appropriated by the State for 
the support of schools; examines the apportionments made to 
the districts by the school commissioners ; sees that each dis- 
trict has its proportionate share, and that the same is expended 
according to law. He gives advice and direction to school officers, 
teachers and inhabitants upon all questions arising under the 
school laws; establishes rules and regulations concerning appeals; 
hears and decides all appeals involving school controversies that 
are brought before him, and his decision is final ; establishes rules 
and regulations concerning district school libraries, and is required 
by law to visit the institutes, and to advise and direct concerning 
their proper management. 

District Commissioners. — These are elected trienially by each of 
the 113 county assembly districts in the State at the general 
election of county officers. They are sworn and receive a salary 
($500), paid out of the public fund; but it maybe increased by vote 
of a majority of the town supervisors. The expenses of the com- 
missioners (not exceeding $200 per annum) are to be assessed on 
the property of the district. Their duty is to visit schools, and to 
inquire into and supervise everything that concerns them — build- 



IN THE UNITED STATES — NEW YORK. 101 

ings, grounds, instruction, discipline, &c. In concurrence with 
town supervisors thej may condemn a schoolhouse, and cut off sup- 
plies during the continuance of the sentence. Thej may grant 
certificates of qualification to teachers not possessing a certificate 
from the State superintendent nor from a normal school ; and may 
also annul certificates by whomsoever granted. They are required 
to make an annual report to the State superintendent, embracing 
returns of trustees, &c. Being concerned in any agency in aid of 
booksellers or publishers, subjects the offender to removal from 
office by the State superintendent. 

Funds. — The means for sustaining the public schools are de- 
rived from a tax of three-fourths of a mill on every dollar of real 
and personal estate, to be paid into the State treasury and drawn 
thence on warrant of State superintendent. This tax is to be paid 
prior to any aid from the State fund. The proceeds of this tax, 
the income of the United States deposit fund and of the school 
fund, constitute the school moneys of the State, which (after being 
charged with some special appropriations) are to be apportioned 
one-third to the school districts and two-thirds to the counties, ac- 
cording to population.* To entitle a district to a share of this ap- 
propriation, it must appear that a common school has been taught 
by a "qualified teacher" during the preceding year twenty-eight 
weeks of five school days to each week; and for any additional 
qualified teacher actually employed during twenty-eight weeks of 
the year a similar appropriation shall be made. The moneys so ap- 
propriated to be paid to the county treasurer; the commissioners 
to certify to the supervisors what is the share of each district, and 
the supervisors to receive and expend the money. The supervisors . 
are to pay "qualified teachers" only, and upon the written order 
of trustees, and for their disbursement of other school moneys on ^ 
sufiicient warrant they are duly to account. 

Trustees. — The trustees are in closest proximity to the schools. 
They are to make out tax lists and issue warrants to collect the 
same ; to purchase or lease sites for buildings ; to hire or build, 
keep in repair and furnish schoolhouses ; have the custody of the 
same, and supply fuel and needful appendages, not exceeding $50 

'"'■ This aiDportionment, from and after the curreut year, 1866, is to be made upon 
the basis of the average daily attendance of the pupils resident in the district between 
5 and 21 years of age, at their respective schools during the preceding year. 
8 



102 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCnOOL 

per annum, without vote of the district. They may expend $20 a 
year in repairs, and supply broom, pail, &c., to keep the house 
*' clean and comfortable." 

They are also to employ teachers and pay them by orders on the 
supervisor. No teacher to be employed who is within two degrees 
of relationship to any trustee without the approval of a majority 
of the district. The trustees are to ascertain from the teachers' 
lists who have sent pupils, with the number of days of their at- 
tendance, and charge such persons (unless excepted for indigence) 
a proportionate share of what is required to pay the teachers be- 
yond the amount of public money, and make out rate-bills for the 
same. 

A "qualified teacher" is one who holds a State normal school 
diploma, or the certificate of the State superintendent, or of a school 
commissioner of the district in which he or she is employed. The 
wages of a teacher not qualified in this sense cannot be paid out of 
the school moneys or by rate-bills. 

Districts. — The districts being divided by commissioners so as 
best to accommodate the population, the qualified voters (being 
every male inhabitant of the district who is of age and possesses 
certain specified property qualifications, or who has paid a rate-bill 
within one year) shall choose one or three trustees and other dis- 
trict ofiicers. 

Union Free ScJiooIs. — Union free schools are such as are main- 
tained by a union of districts, subject to special regulations, and 
supported by public school moneys, as other schools, and by tax for 
the balance of wages, &c. They are formed by a vote of the in- 
■ habitants, and the trustees of them (not less than three nor more 
than nine in number) constitute a body corporate, called the board 
of education. They grade and classify the schools ; prescribe terms 
of admission, course of study, text-books, &c., and pay teachers 
(who shall be not less than one to every fifty pupils) ; levy and col- 
lect school tax; visit schools at least twice in each quarter; make 
reports, &c. The State superintendent is supervisor of the boards 
of education, and may remove any member of them. 

Teachers' Institutes. — School commissioners are required to or- 
ganize every year in each district (or in concert mt\i the commis- 
sioners of one or more districts in the same county) at least one 
teachers' institute, and under the advice and with the co-operation 



IN THE UNITED STATES — NEW YOKE. 103 

of the State superintendent to fix the times of holding them; em- 
ploy persons (for suitable compensation) to conduct or teach them, 
and determine the basis on which to distribute the money appro- 
priated to them. Teachers are to be allowed for the time spent in 
attending upon institutes; and certi^cates of qualification to be so 
framed or regulated as to operate as an incentive to attendance. 
. Libraries. — Libraries are maintained by a tax imposed on each 
district by the inhabitants of the same, not exceeding ten dollars 
in the year. A State fund, amounting to $55,000, is distributed an- 
nually for the like purpose. When the number of volumes in a library 
exceeds 125 to 50 children between 5 and 16, or 100 volumes to 
less than that number of children, the district may, by vote, ap- 
propriate the library money to the purchase of globes, &c., or (with 
the approbation of the State superintendent) to the payment of 
teachers' wages. The library is in the custody of the trustees to 
preserve and keep in repair, and they are liable to their successors 
in ofiice for a loss or waste of the books. Rules for the manage- 
ment of the libraries are prescribed by the State superintendent ; 
who, upon request, shall select books for the same. 

Admission to the public schools is free to all persons over 5 and 
under 21, residing in the district, or (with consent of trustees) 
residing out of it. Separate schools are provided for coloured 
children. 

CONDITION OF SCHOOLS. 

The school system of the Empire State has a high and not 
undeserved reputation. In reviewing it we will advert first to 
interesting items in the superintendent's report, and will modify, 
explain or amplify them as the reports of the district commissioners 
may give us the means. 

The scale on which the system is administered is indicated by 
the fact that in the last decade of years more than six millions of 
dollars have been expended for schoolhouses alone, with their sites 
and appurtenances. It is observable, however, that the number of 
districts were 29 less in 1863 than in 1862, and 17 less in 1864 
than in 1863. The consolidation of schools or districts may per- 
haps account, in part, for this. Another significant item is that 
the expenditure for school buildings in cities was nearly $150,000 



104 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 

less in 1863 than in 1862, while for buildings in rural districts it 
was only §24,000 less. If this denoted the proportion of public 
interest that is felt for the two classes of schools, we should think 
it a very hopeful sign. 

The number of children reported between 4 and 21, in 1863, was 
1,357,047, and between 5 and 21, in 1864, it was 1,307,822, show- 
ing a decrease of nearly 50,000, which was probably owing to the 
exclusion of children between 4 and 5. The superintendent dis- 
trusts the accuracy of the returns for 1863, which gave an increase 
of 31,224 over the preceding year, though he thinks they were not 
too large. Of the 1,357,047 not two-thirds were at school any 
portion of the year. An average based on a period of five years 
"shows that a majority of pupils attend school but a very short 
period each year." The attendance fell off largely in the last year. 

To show the distribution of the juvenile population and the pro- 
portion of teaching and taxing, as it affects the cities and rural 
districts, respectively, the following table will suffice : 



1S63. 1S64. 

Rural p... Rural 

Districts. '"""'^- Districts. 



No. of cliildren 453,798 903,249=1,357,017 447,469 860,353=1,307,822 

Ko. of teachers employed 6 months ) g ^so 12 423 3 408 12 399 

or more at same time S •- ' t -t 

Teachers' wages $1,294,871 $1,431,015 $1,554,212 $1,539,248 

Raised by tax 1,592,728 503,181 1,993,479 674,599 

Add to the taxes raised in the rural districts the amount raised 
by rate-bills, and we have a total there of $1,104,492. 

It appears from this statement that in 1864 3,408 teachers were 
employed, at an expense of $1,554,212, to instruct 447,469 children 
in cities, while 12,399 teachers were employed at an expense of 
$1,539,248, to instruct 860,353 country children. It also appears 
that the number of teachers for city schools was increased, while 
in the country districts it was reduced. We could not frame an 
argument more pertinent and conclusive to establish our position 
that country schools are ovcrshadoAved and neglected, while the 
advanced grades of education in cities and populous towns absorb 
a large share of public interest and support. 

Of $162,671 expended for libraries and school apparatus during 
the year, upwards of $100,000 was from voluntary taxation, and 
more than four-fifths of the total expenditure were for apparatus, — 
less than $30,000 being for libraries. 

To show to how great an extent the proceedings in these humble 



IN THE UNITED STATES — NEW YORK. 105 

one-story, out-of-the-way edifices are our reliance for popular educa- 
tion, it is stated that 90 per cent, of pupils in the State, including 
colleges, academies and private schools, Avere assembled in them.* 
On the other hand, we have an item going far to show how mis- 
placed is this reliance for a thorough knowledge of the elementary 
branches of instruction. It is, that while nearly 900,000 are at 
school some portion of the year, more than half are there less than 
11 weeks, and nearly a fourth of them 8 weeks or less ! Add to 
this brevity of the term the great irregularity of attendance, which 
is a matter of almost universal complaint, and we may more readily 
estimate the inherent virtue or vice of the system. 

Parents. — We find here, as elsewhere, a prevailing apathy on 
the part of parents. If the schools are not attractive enough to 
prompt the willing attendance of children (and very few of them 
are), regularity of attendance must come through the influence or 
authority of parents. And when we consider how few parents 
have sufficient control of their children to secure their obedience in 
matters out of school, we cannot wonder at their neglect or failure 
to secure a compliance with school regulations. 

To do some paltry errand or to save a few steps in drawing water 
or getting wood, thousands of parents do not hesitate to sacrifice 
the privileges of half a day's schooling, and contribute what they 
can to the disorder and inefficiency of the school itself. If they 
had more palpable evidence that there is any privilege in it, they 
might feel and do differently. 

The law to make attendance the basis of the distribution of the 
public money was urged, under the natural impression that the 
pocket is peculiarly susceptible, and that if the appropriation to a 
school district were likely to be curtailed, there would probably be 
a spasmodic effort to swell the number in attendance. But such a 
motive would not be likely to survive, very long, the occasion which 
gave it birth, and we must come back to the plain, honest truth 
that the people are, to a large extent, indifferent to the schools and 
look upon them as something outside of their sphere, like banking 
or telegraphing. 

* More than 90 per cent, of all the children and youth who receive scholastic in- 
struction, go only to the common schools. In view of this fact, and of the intimate 
dependence of good government upon the education of the people, these institutions 
are of paramount importance, and provision for their liberal support and prosperity 
cannot be safely neglected. — Message of Governor to Legislature, January, 1866. 



lOG THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 

Teachers. — The whole number of different teachers employed 
during the year was" 26,213 (or two hundred and eighty-seven less 
than the i^receding year), of whom four-fifths Avere females. 

District Libraries. — The district school library does not seem to 
have taken a very strong or extensive hold upon popular favour, 
and from the nature of the case, as before intimated, we should ex- 
pect no better result. The reports of county commissioners show 
clearly that the value of such an appendage to a public school must 
depend upon the skill with which the library is made up, and still 
more upon the judgment with which the books are distributed. No 
little time and trouble must be required for both these processes, 
and teachers generally are not tempted by the liberality of their 
wages to give time or take trouble in discharging duties outside of 
their appropriate sphere. A very little reflection must satisfy any 
one that the scheme is, in almost every aspect of it, impracticable. 

The books in many cases are scattered over the district or hid 
in some corner where rats, mice and spiders are the only visitors. 
Almost every family is supplied with other reading.* 

The school libraries have outlived their usefulness. The peri- 
odical and the newspaper take their place. f 

The newspaper and the periodical constitute the staple reading 
of our community. The district library is consequently supplanted 
and fallen into disuse. | 

Their day I think has passed never to return. § 

They fail in accomplishing their mission in the intellectual ad- 
vancement of the masses. I j 

The number of volumes in the district school libraries in 1858, 
was 1,402,253. In 18G4 it was 1,125,438, showing a decrease of 
nearly 300,000. The plan of such libraries was set on foot first in 
this State, but without much reference to its practicability.^ The 

* Bi-oome. f Cattaraugus. +Carugii(l). ^Dutchess. || Erie. 

^ A more striking contrast could not be eusilj^ formed between what theorists 
propose and what the people accept, than is presented in this passage of the school 
history of New Yorli. 

The project of district school libraries was broached in t833-4, by the report of 
the superintendent of public schools, and in 1835 authority was given to school dis- 
tricts to raise by tax $20 for this purpose. But the school district had not asked 
for any such authority, nor did they want it. Offers were made by individuals to 
pay one-fourth of the amount to districts who would raise three-fourths, but no 
coaxing would do. Public lectures were given to persuade the districts to adopt 
the measure, but all in vain. In 1838, on the Governor's recommendation, a law- 
was passed called " the glorious library law," ai)propr)ating $53,000 annually for 



IN THE UNITED STATES NEW YORK. 107 

experiment had been tried by individual enterprise in one or two 
towns, and, under the intelligent, personal oversight of parties in- 
terested, it worked well for a time ; but when a market was opened 
for some ten or twelve thousand libraries of one or two hundred 
different books in each, of suitable size and character for the chil- 
dren and youth of a daily public school, it is no wonder that authors 
and publishers were stimulated to make a rush for its supply. At 
first there was doubtless some degree of supervision exercised over 
the introduction and replenishment of these libraries, but the cata- 
logues which have fallen under our observation do not indicate an 
approach to the needful discrimination. The truth is that books 
for children have, of late years, become a drug. They have multi- 
plied in number almost as rapidly as they have deteriorated in 
quality, and they have been diffused so abundantly (in our older States 
at least) as rather to dissipate than instruct the mind and to beget 
habits of superficial and thoughtless reading if nothing worse. It 
can be no cause of wonder, therefore, that those district school libra- 
ries have fallen into neglect and decay, and they will probably soon 
disappear entirely. 

Normal Schools, ^c. — Among the agencies for the training of 
teachers are, 

1. The State normal school, which had ,279 pupils in attendance 
during the year 1863, of whom 218 were females. Sixty pupils 
left the school, of whom 45 were females. There were in attend- 
ance at the date of the report before us 219,* of whom 170, or 
about four-fifths, were females. 

Though the normal school is once or twice incidentally recognized 
in the school law of the State, we do not perceive any provision for 

three years (extended in 1839 to five years), to be distributed to schools that 
raised an equal amount by tax for school libraries. During the year 1840, nearly 
$100,000 were expended for such libraries, and the report of the superintendent of 
public instruction pictures in glowing colours the "two millions of valuable books 
that will be in circulation at the end of five years, among those who most need 
them and are most unable to procure them, whose minds will thus be diverted from 
frivolous and injurious occupations, and employed upon the productions of the wise 
and learned of all ages." And he thinks it will be impossible "to set bounds to the 
mighty influence that will operate upon the moral and intellectual character of the 
State." 

It is difScult to persuade ourselves that so grand and hopeful a theory has proved 
so utterly delusive in practice. 

^" The number in 1865-6 was 222. 



108 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 

its establishment, nor any legislation touching its organization or 
functions. Perhaps it is regarded as a self-constituted agent for sup- 
plying an obvious want.* The normal school receives here and there 
a casual notice in the county reports, but it is not uniformly compli- 
mentary either to the skill or success of those who have attended it. 

The graduates of the normal school do us but little good ; the 
gents go to our own or Western cities, and the ladies generally find 
their fine education no hinderance to their beauty, and sensible 
young men seem to appreciate the one as well as to admire the 
other.f 

While wc have had some whose success has been creditable, and 
whose influence is marked, we have had many also Avho have ex- 
hibited neither ability nor industry, and whose influence has been 
consequently small. | 

From an inspection of these voluminous reports, our conviction 
is much strengthened that all the normal schools in the country 
cannot make a man or woman a successful teacher where there is 
not a natural aptness to teach, and where this exists it will find its 
way to some group of children to their great profit and joy, whether 
the advantages of a training school are at hand or not. 

2. Teachers' classes in academies, embracing at the date of the 
report 1,562§ pupils, of whom 1,243, or four-fifths, Avere females. 

3. Teachers' institutes, which are regarded as a cheap and effi- 
cient method of improving teachers. As at pre-requisite to the ap- 
propriation of public money to their support, 30 persons employed 
in teaching or giving satisfactory evidence of their intention to 
teach, must attend for at least ten working days. The appropria- 
tion is increased in the ratio of numbers in attendance and the 
length of the session. As a motive to teachers to avail themselves 
of such opportunities, the commissioners make a distinction in 
awarding certificates in favour of those who attend. Fifty-five of 
these institutes were held in 1863, and they were attended by up- 
wards of 9,000 teachers, II or about two thirds of the whole number 

* The Executive Message, January, 1866, suggests the propriety of establishing 
other normal and training scliools, and of giving additional facilities and support to 
those already in operation. 

f Oswego (3). I Rockland. 

§ In 1SG5-6, the number of teachers instructed in " Teachers' institutes " was 
8,741. The Executive Message (January-, 186G) suggests that as the annual call 
is for 20,000 teachers, these training agencies should be largely multiplied. 

II It was 1,586 in 186,5-G. 



IN THE UNITED STATES — NEW YORK. 109 

employed during the year. The amount appropriated to this object 
from the school fund was less than $10,000, or a fraction over one 
dollar for each teacher, — a cheap work certainly, if well done. 

4. Voluntary associations of teachers have also proved beneficial in 
elevating the standard of acquirements and exciting to the discus- 
sion of educational topics. 

We turn to the record of the year to see how far this machinery 
for providing competent teachers accomplishes its end. How far 
may we be reasonably assured that the way to the schoolmaster's 
desk is guarded from the intrusion of ignorant, unskilled persons ? 

The State superintenderit of public instruction, and the authori- 
ties of the normal school, we may suppose, exercise a due degree of 
care in certifying the qualifications of teachers. And of the 26,000 
and more employed during the year, one in 26 received a certificate 
from one or the other of these sources, while upwards of 25,000 
were examined and their competency certified by local commission- 
ers, whose qualifications for such a duty are much more proble- 
matical. 

Those who know anything of the character of popular elections 
and of the influences which are often brought to bear on them in 
the most favoured districts, need not be told how an office of this 
kind, with somewhat indefinite duties and a salary of $500 for per- 
forming them really or nominally, would probably be filled in a 
large majority of cases. It has been well said, that " the office of 
school commissioner should not be elective in the present state of 
popular education." 

The majority of the people prize party, as yet, more than edu- 
cation. " There is as much wire-pulling and pipe-laying to win 
the office, as any other of equal or greater dimensions."* To say 
nothing of moral fitness and capacity, which is one branch of in- 
quiry preliminary to a certificate, how few men, in any rural com- 
munity, are in any sense judges of the acquisitions, manners, habits, 
temperament and aptitude which must be combined in a competent 
teacher ? It may not be practicable to improve the system in this 
particular while the examiners are appointed by a popular vote, 
but the safeguard which their intervention supplies against the em- 
ployment of unfit teachers, must be comparatively very weak and 
untrustworthy. 

* Report from Steuben County, First District. 



110 TUE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 

Popular Estimation. — If we glance at the reports of the county 
commissioners, we shall have perhaps a more accurate idea of the 
condition of the daily public schools of New York, and the popular 
estimate of them. The following are extracts : 

In many cases parents instruct the trustees to have school only 
so long as the public money lasts.* 

The cry is continually going up, " Give us a cheap teacher."t 

There is nothing so much dreaded in our school districts by 
those who patronize schools, as rate bills. Trustees (especially of 
country districts) very often take pains to procure the services of 
teachers at so low a rate as to require but little more than the pub- 
lic money to pay the school bill. J 

The wealth of the county, always sensitive and nervous upon 
the questions of taxation, is not arrayed in hostility to our present 
system of schools as it would be were taxes alone relied upon.§ 

How can Ave "run" our schools six months with just the public 
money, is a question as familiar as are common household words. || 

Many parents keep their children at home as soon as they as- 
certain that the public money will not defray the expenses of the 
school. There appears to be an increasing determination on the 
part of trustees to reduce the expenses of the school so as to cover 
them with the public money. "^ 

I am of opinion that should the public money be wholly Avith- 
held, two-thirds of the schools would be permanently closed, not 
because the people are not abundantly able to maintain them, but 
on account of a want of interest in educational matters.** 

Then as to attendance — 

Sixty-seven per cent, of the children attended school only four 
months or less during the year. 

On days of visitation during the year, I found enrolled on the 
teachers' books 6,225 names, and at the same time I found but 
3,884 present.ft 

Without any hesitation, I affirm that not 50 per cent, of the 
children of school age in this Assembly district, have entered a 
schoolhouse for the purpose of receiving instruction during the year, 
and that of the number who have been in school, no more than 25 
per cent, have attended for a longer period than two months. |J 

Of more than 8,000 children in the district, only a little more 
than half, as appears from reports, are ever taught at all, and a 
large proportion but a few days or weeks in a year.§§ 

Such is the irregularity of attendance that it takes an average 
of lOJ years to give 3|- years' schooling. |||| 

* Broome. f Cayuga, 2(1 District. % Herkimer. ^ Oswego, 3d District. 

II Wyoming, 2d District. ^Cattaraugus. ^^^ Suffolk (lltla Rep.), 
ft Chenango. ++ SuiTolk. ?? Ulster (rid Dist.). |||| Westcliester. 



IN THE UNITED STATES — NEW YORK. Ill 

If we were required to show that parents are not sufficiently in- 
terested in the education of their children to be willing to pay for 
it, what would be better evidence than the fact that " they are will- 
ing their children should attend four months in the year (only) if the 
public money lasts so long?" And if a school is wanted for six 
months, they would lower the grade of teaching till tbe teachers' 
wages reach the level of the appropriation. If the expense can be 
defrayed otherwise than by taxing them, tbey will accept the oppor- 
tunity and send their children two, four or six months accordingly. 
While, and so far as, this spirit pervades the mass of families in a 
district or State, the daily public school can never serve the pur- 
pose for which it is organized. There may be much that is imposing 
in the machinery of legislation and in the parade of official over- 
sight and statistical returns, but so long as the advantages of the 
schools are not worth to the people aW they ought to cost, — themselves 
being judges, — there is a radical defect in the system. 

The idea is frequently presented in the reports that irregularity 
of attendance would be at once checked if absence involved any 
pecuniary loss. In other words, if an appreciable privilege were 
contingent on a certain measure of attendance (such as eligibility 
to some lucrative' place or office), taxes would be cheerfully borne. 
Theoretieally a public school confers a more valuable privilege. 

SchooUtouses, ^c. — In respect to schoolhouses and out-buildings, 
the reports are not silent. Many, perhaps most of them, refer in 
terms of warm commendation to changes for the better. We are 
disposed to think their condition is represented quite as favourably 
as facts will justify. 

Fully one-half the schoolhouses have only the highway for a 
playground, and all the surroundings are gloomy and repulsive. 
Some are entirely destitute of out-buildings.* 

Of 53 schoolhouses in this district, 14 are, in structure, in lo- 
cation, in furniture, a disgrace to an intelligent community. The 
people in these districts make much better provision for their cattle 
than for their children. f 

Of 80 schoolhouses in Greene County, one-third are reported as 
"superlatively bad. Out-buildings scarce and in bad condition." 

The general character and condition of the schoolhouses in this 
county, with some few exceptions, are extremely bad. A large 
number of them are old and shockingly out of repair. ;{; 

* Broome. f Cayuga (First District). J Hamilton. 



112 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 

Of 92 schoolhouses in Onondagca County, 64 are unprotected by 
a fence. 

The location of sclioplhouses would seem to have been decided 
in far too many cases by the cheapness rather than the suitableness 
of the site. They are placed either upon some high rocky hill too 
barren for tillage and too bleak for any agricultural use, or else 
upon some low, swampy, spongy bog, where nought but alders or 
rushes can grow and pleasant or healthy to nothing but musquitoes 
and frogs.* 

Many of the old, shabby, ill-looking houses are still in being. 
Pity it is that the elements would not rise in honest indignation, 
and with a hurricane raze to the ground these stumbling blocks, 
which a professedly enlightened humanity cannot see it for its 
interest to do.f 

Of 164 schoolhouses, about 25 are good; 50 may be termed 
passable; the remainder (89) I would prefer to call "teach-pens." 
Seventy per cent, are ventilated by means of knot holes, cracks in 
walls or ceilings, worn-out sills, broken window panes, and by rais- 
ing the window-sash. J 

In at least one-half the districts the schoolhouses are very in- 
ferior and in no respect adapted to personal comfort or conveni- 
ence. § 

There are about 25 pleasant, commodious schoolhouses in the 
district, about 40 more which are in a decent condition, and 60 
which are a disgrace to the county. || 

Text-hoohs. — In respect to text-hooks and apparatus the county 
reports are by no means satisfactory. In very few, if any, of them 
is the subject treated with the fulness which its importance de- 
mands. Several of them do not allude to it at all. 

The pupils select, by the merest lottery of choice, the branches 
they desire to study, so that there are, many times, more classes 
than pupils.^ 

In consequence of this diversity (of text-books), we find no school 
with less than 15 and in some 51 different classes !** 

I have seen Pelton's elegant and useful outline maps, which 
cost this district $25, hung up for window curtains or to cover 
defects in the wall.f f 

We have found Pelton's large series of outline maps stowed 
away in the woodhouse or hung up at the windows for curtains. * * 
As scholars notice their entire neglect, they soon obtain the idea 
that they are worthless, and either the mountings get torn off or a 
knife finds its Avay across them or a mouthful of tobacco saliva 
from an embryo loafer is ejected upon them.^'J 

* Oswego (3). t Suffolk. J Sullivan. ? Tioga. || Washington (2). 
•[Broome. ** Eleventh Rep. Cayuga. ff Cayuga (2). JJ Cayuga (1 ). 



IN THE UNITED STATES — NEW YORK. 113 

In a school at Carterville, consisting of only 30 scholars, the 
commissioners of Oswego County found in use in one district 11 
different readers and 5 different arithmetics, besides primers and 
spelling books. In the report from Sullivan County are mentioned 

5 spellers, 6 readers, 9 geographies, 9 arithmetics, 4 algebras, and 

6 grammars. 

Of school books we have a much greater variety than is profit- 
able for the pupils or pleasant to teachers. I have not the cour- 
age to attempt to report their names.* 

Teachers and their qualifications. — In respect to the qualifica- 
tions of teachers the general bearing of the county reports corre- 
sponds with that of Cayuga County, Second District: "It is safe 
to say that a large majority of teachers in rural districts make no 
special preparation whatever for their business. They hasten in 
the fall from the cornfield and the workshop to the schoolroom, 
with preparations vastly inadequate for the responsible duties 
before them. As commissioners, Ave see their shortcomings, but 
how can we remedy them ?" 

There are two very observable features in the reports of county 
commissioners on this point. 1. That the same teacher is rarely 
employed more than one term in the same school; and 2. That 
the great majority of teachers are females. We cite a few brief 
sentences : 

It is a settled practice in most districts to have a new teacher 
every term. * * * Of the teachers employed, 47 were males and 
196 females. t 

Of the teachers, 22 per cent, have been males and 78 females. 
Generally they (teachers) make the employment a stepping-stone 
to something that pays better. J 

Out of 170 teachers employed, not more than 20 make or in- 
tend to make, teaching a business. § 

About one out of ten make teaching a profession; the others 
teaching during a part of the year when they can make it pay 
better than anything else.|| 

Teachers that can be procured for the least wages are in 
greatest demand,^ 

The whole number of teachers employed in the several gram- 
mar and primary schools of the city does not vary much from 
2000, of whom 1800 are females.** 

* Westchester. f Broome. % Cattaraugus. § Cayuga (2). 

II Columbia. *\ Greene. *■'* Now York City. 



114 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 

Of 178 teachers employed during the year, 35 were males and 
143 females. About 50 per cent, follow teaching as a permanent 
employment until they have a chance to keep house where there is 
(are) only two in a family.* 

Of the persons employed as teachers last year, 48 were males 
and 175 females, and the proportion of female teachers is increas- 
ing.f 

The language employed by several of the commissioners when 
treating of the qualifications of teachers and the motives which 
prompt them to become such, is quite ambiguous, though with 
some it is sulEciently explicit. 

The experience of some districts has shown that high wages do 
not always secure first-class teachers ; and the defects most fre- 
quently mentioned are in the very branches which the law puts 
first, viz.. Orthography and Reading. Where a deficiency in 
these branches is specifically noticed, it is not because the com- 
missioner has stumbled on an unusual number of teachers distin- 
guished for this failure, but because he happened to strike that 
range of inquiries, while other commissioners have pursued an- 
other. Hence we may infer that there is not much uniformity in 
the standard itself, nor in the mode of ascertaining the measure of 
conformity to it. One tells us of teachers who did not know how 
to look for a word in the dictionary, and of one who had taught 
school seven terms, and had received two first grade certificates 
from the commissioners of an adjoining county, who did not know 
that the earth revolves round the sun ! 

If poor teachers must be supported at public expense I say do 
it, but keep them out of our schools. We cannot support them 
and spoil our children too. It would be better and cheaper to 
support them out of the schoolhouse than in it.| 

A great majority of our teachers are barely passable. § 

Of 320 teachers (69 males and 251 females), 5 of the former 
and 15 of the latter follow teaching as a permanent employment.|| 

The proportion of male to female teachers is about 1 to 7, 
with only 20 professional teachers in 91 schools. Of 5 out of 6 it 
is said that while they give a very good rote illustration in figures 
and know well the relative geographical positions of this earth (?), 
they have no acquaintance with history or general literature, no 
thought beyond the frivolities of life ; in short, they want tiiat 

* Oswego (2). t Oswego (3). | Oswego (2). ^ Suffolk (1). 1| Sullivan. 



IN THE UNITED STATES — NEW YORK. 115 

thought, learning, and preparation which alone can fit them for 
their high trust.* 

Of the 217 teachers employed during the year, 55 were males 
and 162 females. Twenty-eight of the 217 may be said to follow 
teaching as a profession. I have known a first-class teacher lose a 
situation because a young and inexperienced girl would serve for 
two shillings less per week.f 

Of the teachers in this district last year, 74 per cent, were 
females. It is almost, not quite, literally true of them all, that the 
females teach until they can find husbands, the males till they can 
find some more profitable employment.! 

During last year I have refused twelve applications (for licenses). 
My observation during the past summer in visiting the schools, 
leads me to believe that it would have been better had I refused at 
least three times that number. § 

Most of the teachers are young and inexperienced. |j 

In reading, more of them (the teachers) make bad readers than 
there are who teach to read well.^ 

Nearly two-thirds of the female teachers are quite too young 
for the business. They teach only in the summer, and do the chea'p 
teacldng for the six month school.** 

Teachers'' Institutes. — Considerable interest seems to be mani- 
fested (according to these reports) in the teachers' institutes held 
during the year. They are supposed to be conducted by some 
mature and experienced teacher, and oftentimes persons versed in 
various branches of learning attend and give lectures, which can- 
not fail to profit, more or less sensibly, those who attend. We ap- 
prehend, however, that too little of the labour and responsibility of 
making them useful and attractive devolves on the members. List- 
ening to half a dozen skilful lecturers may do good, but to make 
the work thorough, some test like that of a catechetical exercise 
seems necessary, to measure, not only the knowledge possessed, but 
the skill of the possessor to make it available in the j)rocess of edu- 
cating others. There seems to be no certain or uniform provision 
for securing the proper and profitable conduct of the institute. If 
the school commissioners have discrimination to select, and influence 
to secure the services of suitable persons to interest, stimulate and 
instruct a mixed body of teachers who may voluntarily assemble 
for the purpose, good results would doubtless be witnessed. But 
lectures are the most superficial of all modes of imparting instruc- 

* Ulster (1). f Washington. J Westchester (3). § Eleventh Report, Essex. 
II Franklin. f Greene. ** Jefferson. 



116 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 

tion, and considering the great diversity in the minds and attain- 
ments of those who are addressed, much of the best lecture must be 
as water spilled upon the ground. 

So far as the reports are concerned, we fail to see any decided 
testimony to the value of this agency, With, here and there, a 
general reference to the good influence of such conferences, the 
gist of the information relates to the places where they are held, 
the length of sessions, the number in attendance, and the names of 
the lecturers. But the preponderance of the testimony, such as it 
is, is favourable, and were the same teachers employed from year to 
year and a succession of well conducted institutes were attended by 
them, we cannot doubt that a marked improvement would be seen 
in schools. We should require some better proof of it, however, than 
the opinion of a district or county commissioner who may be as in- 
competent to judge of the qualifications of another as he is to teach 
himself. 

This glance at the leading topics of interest in these official re- 
turns, does not leave the impression that the daily public schools of 
New York are doing the work assigned to them. The legislative pro- 
visions seem to be wise and ample, the corps of officials numerous 
and the expenditures liberal ; but the working force is altogether 
inadequate, parents are indifferent, and, in a word, the popular heart 
is not in them. They show none of that vitality which gives prom- 
ise of a vigorous growth, stability and fruitfulness, such as the im- 
posing and expensive array of means would lead us to expect ; and 
until this aspect of the institution is essentially changed, there will 
be a perceptible deterioration of public manners, and a positive and 
rapid increase of ignorance and crime. A proposition to abolish 
the daily public school, would receive a loud and universal nega- 
tive. How much better than its abolition is its present low, grudged, 
extorted support ? 



IN THE UNITED STATES — MASSACHUSETTS. 117 



DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL IN MASSACHUSETTS. 



SYNOPSIS OE LAWS. 

Board of Education. — The Board of Education was established 
in 1837, and is composed of the governor, lieutenant-governor, and 
eight persons appointed by the Executive for the term of eight 
years, one member retiring annually, and his place supplied in the 
same way. The duty of the Board is to prescribe blank returns, 
appoint a secretary, and collect and diffuse information to insure the 
best education. The incidental expenses of the Board are paid 
out of the public treasury. 

Secretary. — The duty of the Secretary of the Board (whose 
salary is $2,500, and |400 for travelling expenses) is to visit 
schools, and use means to give a harmonious and efficient action 
to the machinery, and, once a year, to make a report of his 
doings. 

Agents are also appointed by the Board to visit, lecture, &c., 
spending a day or more in each town, examining the schools in 
the afternoon, and lecturing in the evening. 

Institutes. — Institutes were first organized in 1846, and may be 
established where fifty or more teachers desire to unite in sustain- 
ing one. Three thousand dollars a year are appropriated from the 
school fund to pay for the maintenance of institutes, though the 
apportionment cannot exceed $350 to each. Sessions are limited 
to five days. 

County Associations. — County associations of teachers are also 
encouraged by an allowance of $25, provided they hold a session 
of two days in behalf of the interests of public schools. 

School Fund. — The school fund was established in 1835. One 
and a half millions were received from the sale of Maine lands ; 
from the payment, by the General Government, of claims for ser- 
vices during the war of 1812, and from subscriptions to the stock 
of the Western Railroad ; and by a provision of 1854 it was made 
$2,000,000. One-half of the income is appropriated to support the 
public schools, and the other half to '■'other educational purposes." 



118 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 

The principal of the fund, January 1, 1864, was $1,870,970 90. 
The amount divided on the 10th of July, 1863, was $49,044 09, 
or (say) twenty-one cents to each child between five and fifteen. 
To secure this a sum must be raised by tax equal to three dollars 
for each person between those ages, to pay for the wages and board 
of teachers, for fuel and for schoolrooms. Another pre-requisite 
to a share of the State fund is, that the schools shall be kept open 
at least six months, and the high schools maintained according to 
law. The expense of schoolhouses and repairs is to be defrayed 
by an assessment on the property of the district. 

State Scholar ships. — These constitute a peculiar feature of the 
system, and are designed to aid in qualifying principals for the 
high schools existing in the State. Forty-eight young men can, 
on certain conditions, receive $100 per annum from the State 
towards the expenses of a full four years' course at any college they 
may select Avithin the State. To equalize the privilege over the 
whole territory, it is divided into sections and classes. School 
committees, in conjunction with a competent teacher, certify that 
A. B. will be fitted for college at the ensuing commencement ;* and 
upon examination, if satisfactory, he is admitted, and if in good 
standing at the close of each successive year, he receives the stipulated 
sum. After leaving college he is required to attend at least one 
term at a normal school, for which he shall be allowed fifty dollars. 

A person receiving State patronage is required to teach in the 
public schools of the State for a length of time equal to that for 
which he received aid, and for neglect must pay $100 per year 
from the time he graduated, till the whole amount is returned, 
with interest.f No provision is made here for the training of 
female teachers, on whom the chief burden of primary instruction 
rests ; but it is supposed that teachers' institutes, held in all parts 
of the State, and the normal school, will meet this want. 

* By a late law, this act is so amended as to provide that the State scholars, in- 
stead of being selected by examination before entering college, are selected after 
they have spent one year in college, on an inspection by the Board, of the certifi- 
cates of the Faculty as to good conduct, scholarship, and health, and any other tes- 
timonials they may furnish. 

f It is worthy of remark that very few (two or three perhaps) availed themselves 
of the normal school privilege. It is now made imperative on them to attend. IVe 
do not find any detailed report of the number of these State beneficiaries who have 
served, or are serving out their time faithfully in the public schools, nor of the 
measure of their success, compared with those who have enjoyed no sucli advantage. 



IN THE UNITED STATES — MASSACHUSETTS. 119 

Teachers. — The schools are to be sufficient in number, and to be 
■supplied with teachers of competent ability and of good morals, who 
shall instruct all children who may legally attend, in orthography, 
reading, writing, English grammar, arithmetic, the history of the 
United States, and in good behaviour. Other branches may be in- 
troduced at the discretion of the school committee. All these 
branches, except history, were required by the old law. 

To encourage the introduction of female teachers into the public 
employment, schools having fifty or more scholars are required to 
employ one or more female assistants, unless the town shall vote 
against it ; and in his report for 1861, the Secretary of the Board 
proposed to use the word "teacher" instead of "master" wherever 
it occurs, so as to admit females into high schools as teachers, 
as " in many cases they have exhibited abundant fitness for the 
work." 

High Schools. — High schools are authorized in all towns, and 
are required in towns containing 500 families. They are to be 
kept open ten months in the year. In theory all the inhabitants 
of the town are to have the benefit of this school for instruction in 
the higher branches of learning. In towns containing 4,000 in- 
habitants, such a school is be taught by persons competent to 
instruct in the Greek and Latin languages. Adjoining towns, 
neither of which have the requisite number of families, may unite 
to sustain a high school.* 

Adult Schools. — Adult schools are authorized by law, to be 
taught gratuitously. 

Moral Instruction. — The law provides that teachers shall im- 
press upon the schools "the principles of piety, justice, and a 
sacred regard to truth." By a recent act the Bible is required to 
be read daily in the schools without oral or written comment ; but 
no child shall be required to read in a version against which the 
parent or guardian shall express objection. 

School Committee. — The immediate oversight of the schools is 
entrusted to a committee consisting of three (or some multiple of 
three), one third of whom are chosen annually. They are invested 
Avith plenary powers to arrange, classify, and grade schools — to 
examine and employ teachers who are furnished with proper cer- 

* By the census of 1860 it appears that 128 towns were required to lieep a high 
school. In 18C4 118 schools of this class were open ; some of them, however, for 
a less term than ten months. 



120 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCUOOL 

tificates of qualification. They are also to visit the seliools during 
the first and last week of every month of each session. Their' 
compensation is fixed by law. When the town shall so elect, cer- 
tain functions of the school committee may be performed by one 
called "superintendent of public schools," who is to act under 
"the committee's direction, and to receive a fixed salary. 

Taxes. — Taxes required for school purposes are assessed, like 
other taxes, at the rate of $3.00 for each child betAveen the ages 
of five and fifteen. A failure to raise this amount works a for- 
feiture of the ai^propriation from the State, and a failure to keep 
the schools open for the time required by law subjects the delin- 
quent town to a penalty. 

School Books. — Books are furnished to pupils at cost, and can- 
not be changed but by the unanimous consent of the committee. 
When changes are made, pupils are to be furnished with the sub- 
stitute at public expense. Poor children are furnished gratui- 
tously. 

Sclioolhouses. — Suitable houses are to be provided by the seve- 
ral towns, sufficient in number and capacity to receive all who have 
a right to be taught in them. Land may be taken for the site not 
exceeding eighty square rods, exclusive of buildings, paying the 
owner a fair equivalent. 

Attendance. — The law peremptorily requires the attendance 
upon some public school in the city or town where they reside, 
of all children between eight and fourteen for at least twelve 
weeks in the year (where the schools are so long open), six of 
Avhich shall be consecutive, except in cases of extreme poverty, 
or where the child has or has had the like or better advantages 
elsewhere, or is incapacitated in body or mind to attend. Unvac- 
cinated children are not admitted to any public school, but neither 
race, colour, nor religious opinions exclude any one. 

No child under twelve years of age can be employed in a fac- 
tory more than ten hours a day, and there is special provision on 
the subject of employing unschooled children there, at all. 

Truancy. — There are wholesome laws respecting truancy, which 
the towns are required to enforce. 

Normal Schools. — The first normal school was opened in 1839, 
and two others in a space of about a year after. The fourth was 
opened in 1853. Two of them are for females exclusively, and 



IN THE UNITED STATES — MASSACHUSETTS. 121 

the other two for both sexes. Tuition is free in them all. Females 
are admitted at sixteen, and males at seventeen, and every candi- 
date must give an assurance of his or her purpose to teach in the 
public schools of the State. There is an annual appropriation of 
$2,000 to aid those Avho need aid, and to equalize the expense of 
attendance. Teachers of normal schools are appointed by the 
Board of Education. The course of study extends through two 
years, four classes of pupils in each school, and six months' term 
of study for each class. 

It is to the credit of the bureau that the Twenty-seventh Report con- 
tains a return from every town in the Commonwealth (333) and they 
show the number of schools to be 4,626. The number of children 
returned between 5 and 15, May 1, 1862, was 238,381. The num- 
ber of scholars of all ages in all the schools in winter was 227, 252, 
and nearly the same number in summer ; and the average at- 
tendance was about four-fifths of the number returned, which is 
certainly a very creditable ratio. The number of different persons 
employed as teachers during the year was 7,332, of whom four- 
fifths were females. The average length of school term was 8 
months. The wages of both male and female teachers were less 
than in the year previous. The amount received in taxes for pub- 
lic schools was $1,434,015, and from State fund, $49,044. Ex- 
pended on public schools, exclusive of houses and books, $1,566,949, 
being a decrease of $68,676. 

CONDITION OF SCHOOLS. 

More than two hundred years ago the principle v/as incorporated 
into the legislation of Massachusetts, that the whole people must 
be educated to a certain degree at the public expense, irrespective 
of any social distinctions. Schools established by ecclesiastical 
authority, and conducted under ecclesiastical supervision, were not 
free schools in the sense in which we use the term. 

The law makes it the imperative duty of every town to organize 
and support a certain number and grade of schools, and authorizes 
the imposition of a tax sufficient for that end. An annual appro- 
priation is made by the vote of every town for school purposes. 

The provision of the school fund in 1834, and the organization 
of the Board of Education three years afterwards^ have, of course. 



122 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 

wrought manifold chan2;es in the instruction and oversight of the 
public schools, but not greater perhaps than have been wrought iii 
the general condition of the community. There are ten news- 
papers and twenty books now where there was one of either then, 
and the advance in various branches of knowledge has been 
still more vast. We are by no means prepared to admit, how- 
ever, that the schools of to-day make better readers, spellers, 
and writers than were made by the same class of schools forty or 
fifty years ago. The modes and instruments and grades of in- 
struction have doubtless greatly improved. There are fifty school 
books now where there was one then. Such atlases and beautifully 
illustrated geographies as are now common were then unknown. 

But what was lacking in facilities was largely made up in applica- 
tion and pains-taking. The young mind was not distracted with a 
score of diff"erent studies. Nobody dreamed that rhetoric and philoso- 
phy, political economy and constitutional law had a place in the 
daily common school. The aim of teachers was to give the boys and 
girls a good knowledge of such branches as an American man or 
woman needs to know, in order to discharge creditably the duties of 
ordinary life. To be able to read the Bible, the newspaper, and the 
ballot; to keep an accurate account of debt and credit ; to express 
legibly and intellegibly one's ideas and wishes in a letter, was the 
main end in view. If individuals, here and there, aspired to some 
higher attainments, the grammar school and the academy (or high 
school) were accessible on reasonable terms ; and beyond these, for 
the few who purposed entering into one of the learned professions, 
or who had the inclination and means of pursuing literature for its 
own sake, was the college. 

The schoolmaster ranked with the minister and the squire. The 
school, like the church, was in immediate contact with the popular 
heart. The inordinate lust for office and place — the dexterous man- 
ipulations of political jugglers, and the shifts to eat and not work, if 
not unknown, were shamefaced ; and as to the diffusion of useful 
learning, we doubt much if the juries summoned from the " Bay State" 
to-day are more upright, intelligent, and discriminating than the same 
number from the same class of the community were then. The arts 
and sciences have advanced marvellously, but whether the people 
more justly appreciate their social and civil privileges; whether the 
virtues of honesty, industry, temperance, and reverence for the au- 



IN THE UNITED STATES — MASSACHUSETTS. 123 

tliorlty of God or man are as conspicuous now in the mass of the com- 
munitj as they were then, is very questionable. And surely if the 
science and practice of education, in any proper sense of the term, 
had advanced, as have the science and practice of agriculture, com- 
merce, and the mechanical and manufacturing arts, the fact would 
he revealed more or less distinctly in the prevalence of the virtues 
and graces just enumerated. 

Indeed, if we take the standard prescribed in a report of one of 
the commissioners, now before us, we gravely doubt if any ma- 
terial progress could be shown. 

All children should be taught in school what they will most 
need in the world to prepare them for honourable, useful, virtuous, 
and happy liv^es. This proposition embraces their being taught 
to live religiously, to think carefully, to reckon accurately, to read 
and converse well, and to write a correct business letter. * * 
The culpable neglect of the New England schools in teaching their 
pupils how to write a letter is proved a hundred times every year 
in the letters we receive. Men and women in respectable situa- 
tions write us letters which disgracefully abound with false gram- 
mar, bad spelling, and worse punctuation.* 

Popular Estimation. — The Board of Education, with its Sec- 
retary or executive officer, the school fund, and the normal 
schools, are the chief features of the present system in this State. 
The report before us refers to sundry " measures adopted by the 
Legislature from time to time in aid of the efficiency of the system 
of common schools," objections to which are regarded as indi- 
cating a false and fatal economy, and a very inadequate appre- 
ciation of the advantages of a school ; and it adds, " with all 
the agencies which have been thus created, the eifort to keep 
up the public interest to its proper tone is often inadequate and 
ineffectual, and to remove these agencies would be to suffer the 
whole system to relapse into a state of but little better than sus- 
pended animation, "f 

Is it not a fair inference, that however curious and imposing the 
machinery, the daily common school is not imbedded in the popu^ 
lar sympathy ? Were the interior life and spirit what it should be, 
might not this constant pressure from, without be lessened, if not 
withdrawn ? We cannot clothe our idea in more appropriate lan- 
guage than we find prepared to our hand in the sensible report of 
* Medford. f Twenty-seventh Report of Board, page 6. 



124 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 

the school committee of Haverhill, — a. fair specimen of a thrifty 
New England town. 

Even here is danger that in his appreciation of what the State 
is doing for him the individual will content himself with doing 
nothing. "Why," he may be tempted to exclaim, "how blest am 
I ! with nothing to do but look on and see how smoothly and suc- 
cessfully the State operates her educational machinery." * * * 
What though the State legislates a school into a neighbourhood, 
builds the house, hires the master, and foots the bills ; a school 
is nothing without life ! And that school must be as cold and dead 
as a Pharisee's prayer unless the neighbourhood gives it inspiration. 
Like a young tree, its vitality must come from the soil in which it 
is set; its fruitage depend on the nursing and pruning it receives. 
The State can provide the altar, but not the incense — give the 
form, but not the power. It can compel the children to belong to 
the school, but it can neither inspire the love of study nor secure 
the punctuality on which improvement depends. This is individual 
work — home work — the work of parents. 

Nothing can give us good schools if the people forsake them. 
The wisest provisions of law, the most liberal appropriations of 
money, and most pains-taking supervision of the proper authorities 
cannot compensate for that. The very breath is gone if the at- 
mosphere of public interest be wanting.* 

We are convinced that no selection of teachers and appropria- 
tion of funds, however liberal, will raise our schools to the rank 
they ought in justice to attain, without the aid of other powerful 
agents, the most prominent of which is an undivided public 
interest. t 

All machinery is useless if we have not the motive power. 
You may have the best of railroad tracks laid down, bridges 
built, grades proportioned, summits levelled, valleys lifted, passen- 
ger cars of completest structure, locomotives of perfect play, you 
need one thing more, viz. : steam. You may set in motion all 
sorts of institutions, apparatus, appliances and instrumentalities 
for the education of your children — all is in vain without the earn- 
estness of the parental soul which keeps the engine in motion. J 

Similar language occurring at short intervals in the reports of 
committees seems to indicate the continuance of a " tendency" to 
the same practical lifelessness which the Board charge upon the 
institution "when left to its intrinsic merits" as it was before what 
is called the reform in the system "began twenty-five years ago." 

There is, moreover, an item or two of positive evidence that the 

* Marlborough. f Boylston. J West Springfield. 



IN THE UNITED STATES — MASSACHUSETTS. 125 

interest of the people in the subject, if not sensibly diminished, 
suflfers perilous alternations. The sum raised for educational pur- 
poses was less last year than the year before ; the length of sessions 
and the average attendance -were less. The average wages of both 
male and female teachers were reduced, though the expenses of 
livinof had increased ; and of the fourteen counties of the State, 
thirteen decreased the amount raised by taxation for support of 
public schools. 

A single fact is worth a score of speculations. A law of the 
State prohibits the employment by manufacturing establishments 
of children who have not a certain measure of schooling ! So much 
more value did sundry parents attach to the muscles than to the 
minds of their children, that they actually removed from the State, 
that they might be at liberty to keep their children at work the 
entire year, losing no time for their schooling ! This withdrawal 
so depleted the force that the managers concluded to disregard the 
law, and employ little hands, whatever become of little heads and 
hearts.* 

Teachers. — Eight-tenths of the teachers are females, and a large 
proportion of them endeavour to qualify themselves for their work as 
aprofessio7i. It is stated that "large numbers"t of these have gone 
through a course of instruction in academies and normal schools, 
and the compensation they receive is less than half what is paid 
to male teachers for inferior services, and scarcely more than the 
wages of a porter or a hod-carrier. We do not wonder that the 
Secretary of the Board animadverts with considerable severity on 
this rank injustice. A case is cited from a sister State, in which 
a male teacher, at a salary of $700 or more, resigned his place. 
For the sake of the experiment a female teacher was elected to 
the vacant post, though at only half her predecessor's pay. She 
gave entire satisfaction to her employers, and modestly asked to 
have her salary raised. Her request was declined, and she relin- 
quished the school. The report alludes to this case as a sample of 
injustice to female teachers. We use it to show the low popular 
appreciation of the public school. 

* Twenty-seventh Annual Report, p. 211. 

f So indefinite a phrase should not be employed on a point of such importance. 
We suppose it is as easy to keep a record of the number of pupils from a normal 
school that are employed in teaching, as of the number of ministers or doctors from 
a college class. 



126 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 

Though the Ia^Y is imperative that a sufficient number of schools 
for the instruction of all the children who desire to attend shall 
be kept open for at least six months of the year, it is stated that 
nearly one third of the towns failed to conform to it, and among 
the delinquents are some of the most thriving towns in the State. 
The secretary urges the consolidation of districts whose number of 
children is comparatively small, as a method of improving the 
schools and reducing the expense. 

There is no doubt that one good school in a town is better for 
those who can attend than half a dozen poor ones, nor that a much 
more advanced grade of instruction might be introduced- into this 
better or higher school, but it must be borne in mind that the le- 
gitimate purpose of a free school system is, to supply a measure of 
instruction to all ; and this end is more likely to be secured by 
carrying the school into each neighbourhood than by summoning 
the children of several neighbourhoods to a central point, though 
perhaps to a better school. Such observation as we have been able 
to make inclines us to the belief that it would be safer and better, 
as well as more consonant to the end in view, to have a lower 
grade of instruction accessible to all, than a higher grade, re- 
stricted by local circumstances to a favoured few. 

High Schools. — The argument in favour of high schools in which 
Latin and Greek are taught, has much popular force. The term 
" People's Colleges," suits the ears of a multitude, and the mechanic 
and day labourer rejoice in the idea of giving their sons " college 
learning" at the public expense, so that they shall not be a whit be- 
hind the chiefest of those who expend large sums to obtain a imi- 
versity education. And lest there should be invidious distinctions in 
phraseology, the terms "commencement," "graduates," "degrees," 
" diplomas," "alumni," &c.,are employed to describe the parties and 
proceedings that distinguish the close of an academical term. It is 
very true that a law of Massachusetts, two centuries old, required 
towns having one hundred* householders to maintain a grammar 
school, as it was called, and to employ a teacher competent to fit 
pupils for the university ; but it must be borne in mind that the 
public school and the minister's study furnished most of the in- 
struction of which the people could avail themselves. Academies 
and private institutions are things of a later period, and though the 
* Two hundred by a law of 1789. 



IN THE UNITED STATES — MASSACHUSETTS. 127 

ability to prepare pupils for college was required in the teacher 
of these grammar schools, it is very evident, from the annual ac- 
cessions to that classic community, how few availed themselves of 
his services. 

The modern high school is required in every town of five hun- 
dred families or householders. It is to be open ten months of the 
year to all the inhabitants, and the teacher must be qualified to 
instruct in general history, bookkeeping, surveying, geometry, 
natural philosophy, chemistry, botany, the civil polity of the Com- 
monwealth and of the United States, and the Latin language. All 
this will not fit the pupil for the university, however, and the school 
which embraces this extensive course of instruction, is regarded as 
the lowest of the high school class. In a town of 4,000 inhabit- 
ants, there is to be a first-grade high school in which Greek and 
French as well as Latin are to be taught, if required, and also as- 
tronomy, rhetoric, logic, intellectual and moral science and political 
economy. 

Of sixty-eight towns required to maintain a high school of the 
lower grade, thirty-five, or more than half, decline to comply ; and 
of the sixty cities and towns required to establish a high school of 
the first grade, eleven refuse or neglect to comply. Among these 
delinquent towns are " some of the most prosperous and flourishing 
in the Commonwealth." Considering that the support of all the 
schools of this class which the law contemplates would require (ex- 
clusive of buildings) an average increase of less than one-tenth of 
a cent on a dollar to the year's taxes, some cause must be assigned 
for the neglect, aside from the cost. Is it not possible that there 
is a surfeit of school privileges which is working a distaste for them, 
and that all which modern legislation proposes beyond the routine 
of the good old-fashioned grammar school is for the advantage of 
the few in central and populous localities, while the out-lying dis- 
tricts are scarcely recognized as objects of public concern?* 

That persons can be found qualified to teach, in addition to the or- 
dinary elementary branches, fifteen distinct sciences (some of them 
the most abstruse and difiicult that can be named), and three lan- 

* The newspapers tell us that in a late public lecture by the Secretary of the Board 
of Education, he stated that there are seventy-five high schools in the State, in 
which children can get a better education than Harvard College furnished when 
Edward Everett and William II. Prescott were there. 



128 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 

giiagcs beside, <all for an average salary of $800, is scarcely credi- 
ble. At all events Ave may predict a sore disappointment if any 
academics or normal schools now established, are relied on to fur- 
nish teachers of such accomplishments. 

Normal Scliools. — The board of education regard the normal 
schools as indispensable to the success of their system, and the 
confidence of the secretary of the board in their usefulness is very 
strongly expressed. Their agency in elevating the character and 
aspirations of the great body of teachers he thinks is invaluable. 
It has been found that eighteen months' pupilage in a normal school 
is not sufiicient to accomplish the end, and the term is now extended 
to two years. All needful preparation "in the elementary branches, 
including thorough drill in the best method of teaching them, occu- 
pies six months, leaving under the former provision, only twelve 
for a wider range of scientific and classical culture, for which 18 
are wanted." From this it would appear that three-fourths of the 
normal school training have respect to the higher grade of schools. 
It only contributes indirectly, if it contributes at all to improve 
the modes of instruction in the ordinary branches of reading, writ- 
ing, spelling, arithmetic, geography and English grammar, the 
specified branches which it is the special purpose of the daily public 
school to teach. Some conceit of this incongruity may possibly 
have prompted the official visitors to the normal school at Fram- 
ingham to say, " We hope the range of instruction in our pub- 
lic schools will be confined more particularly to the elementary 
branches, such as reading, spelling, writing and arithmetic." And 
again, "We believe it is far better to seek for improved methods of 
teaching elementary studies to the youth of our public schools, than 
to labour to introduce and make easy the higher branches for 
which they are generally unprepared. We are to educate the. 
masses." These most important ends of the public school might be 
answered, one would think, without any extensive " classical cul- 
ture," and even without a very thorough knowledge of chemistry, 
natural philosophy and logic. 

The number of pupils admitted to the four normal schools in the 
course of the year was 275. Their average age on admission was 
19| years, and the expenses (independent of building, repairs, &c.) 
were a little short of $50 per head. The report of one of the visit- 
ing committees to these schools, unfolds to us their character and 
scope as follows : 



IN THE UNITED STATES — MASSACHUSETTS. 129 

" The normal school should be pre-eminently a school of train- 
ing, of discipline of the moral, mental and physical powers. The 
teacher who has acquired a high ideal of excellence, and has the 
power of independent thought, the capacity and the habit of ex- 
amining, comparing and deciding for himself, is likely to succeed. 
These qualities make him suggestive, fruitful of expedients, and 
capable of adapting himself readily to circumstances ;" and it is 
added, " that the education which the normal school imparts, is 
eminently calculated to develope these high qualities if they exist." 
Aye, if they exist ! and it is their existence that makes the sort of 
man who is described; but the work of the normal school, though it 
may aid their improvement, cannot supply their absence. " Every- 
where, throughout creation, we find faculties developed through the 
performance of those functions which it is their office to perform, 
not through the performance of artificial exercise devised to fit them 
for these functions."* Pregnant words — these. 

We are without the means of judging how large a proiDortion of 
the young men and women who enter the normal schools possess 
these peculiar qualities, nor are we informed how many prove sus- 
ceptible of the desired improvement. We are told, however, that 
only about four per cent, of the teachers employed in the State 
have been under normal school instruction. We do not remember 
any intimation of the number of normal school graduates employed 
within the State, nor for what length of time nor with what success. 
In the reports of school committees, there is rarely an allusion to 
these schools or to their influence. Were it practicable to trace the 
758 individuals who have left the normal school at Salem since it 
Avas opened, ten years ago, so as to show how many have followed 
teaching as a profession in Massachusetts or elsewhere, for what 
period and with what reputation, we should have some data, that 
we have not now, by which to determine the positive advantages it 
has conferred on the community. Or, if all along through the re- 
ports of the school committees we should see a hundred or even a 
score of incidental allusions to the spring which was given to the 
schools in this, that, and the other town by the introduction of a 
teacher from one of the normal schools ; or if they should describe the 
contrast which Avas observable between him or her and the best 

* Herbert Spencer, quoted in the report of the school committee of Salem, — the 
scat of one of the normal schools ! 



130 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCUOOL 

teacher they had known previously, a like judgment might be 
formed. For example, the committee of South Danvers tell us of 
an "entire revolution eiSected by the employment of a really compe- 
tent teacher, where it is a luxury to spend an hour listening to the 
extremely accurate reading of the little scholars," and much more 
to the same effect. Now, if it could have been added, " and for this 

teacher we are indebted to the normal school at ," it would have 

been just one of the items which we have in mind. 

Nothing is clearer than that normal schools can no more make 
good teachers than military schools can make brave and skilful 
generals, or theological schools learned and eloquent preachers. 
Young men and women may select teaching as an honourable and 
useful method of obtaining a livelihood, and it may be not less to 
their credit than their advantage to attend the required term at 
some normal school and obtain a certificate of qualification, and 
after all they may be quite incompetent to do justice to a very ordi- 
nary primary school. And while we are not disposed to question 
the high praise bestowed on these schools or to deny them the im- 
portance which the Board and Secretary claim, we do not perceive 
that evidence of their practical value which justifies it. Possibly 
the higher class of schools may have reaped advantages from them, 
and in this indirect way the public may receive a full equivalent 
for its outlay. But our present inquiry, it must be remembered, is 
restricted to the interest of the daily public school, — the educating 
agency for seven or nine tenths of the community that are educated 
at all. And we do not trace such improvement in the qualifications 
of teachers /or this class of schools, as the province they occupy de- 
mands, a province of much higher importance, we humbly conceive, 
than that which the teachers of high schools occupy. " We do not 
undervalue that higher, more generous culture, the worth of which 
those who lack can measure by their wants as well as those who 
possess can by their enjoyment. * * * But Ave speak of the legiti- 
mate purpose of our common grammar schools, not their exclusive 
but their primary, paramount and essential function."* For these 
humble nurseries of the bulk of our population, we need high attain- 
ments but not the high grade of attainments which normal schools 
arc supposed to supply. 

In closing a bargain for a teacher, other things being equal, 

* Salem. 



IN THE UNITED STATES— MASSACHUSETTS. 131 

prefer a man of common sense without great scholarship to a 
learned man without common sense ; prefer those who have some 
love and enthusiasm for their calling ; prefer those who have 
shown themselves skilful in inventing ways and means to interest 
children ; prefer those who have originality enough not to be 
tied down to the questions and answers in the school books ; pre- 
fer such as are polite, pleasing and neat — last, not least, prefer one 
who can sing.* 

Age, experience and common sense, as well as education, are 
qualifications for teachers of youth, and they are not acquired at 
a normal school.! 

The Framingham report, from which the following passage is 
cited, contains a thorough analysis of the teaching work, and shows 
how important are the qualifications which pertain to the tempera- 
ment and constitution of the teacher, and can never be imparted. 
Framinsham is the seat of one of the four normal schools of the State ! 

Professional enthusiasm is essential to high success in teaching. 
This remark applies, in a sense, to all professions, but has special 
significance as applied to the work of the schoolroom. 

But enthusiasm is not a gift that the normal school can confer, 
nor can it refuse to receive a pupil who lacks it. 

So much prominence is given to the normal school feature of the 
Massachusetts system, that we dwell upon it more in detail. The 
position we assume is that however valuable in themselves may be 
the instruction and training they give or however advantageous to 
the pupils in attendance, their claim to be regarded as an essential 
part of the machinery of public education, rests on the positive and 
palpable advantages which the daily public school (to which the mul- 
titude resort) derives from them. Take a single branch — reading 
for example, which is said to have fallen into much neglect and to 
which special attention has been paid by the normal schools. Prizes 
have been oflFered to stimulate competition, and awarded to those 
who, at the examination for admission, distinguished themselves by 
excellence in reading. The preparatory instruction, received pre- 
vious to the age required for admission to the normal school, must 
of course be from such teachers as are found in the common school. 
The rules which are prescribed for reading and by which the merits 
of the candidate are determined are singularly exacting. 1. A nat- 
ural or acquired " fulness of voice to enable him or her to fill without 

* Sterling. f Snugus. 



132 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 

apparent effort the room occupied by the class." 2. " Perfect dis- 
tinctness of articulation." 3. " Correct pronunciation with that 
roundness and fulness of enunciation and sweetness and mellowness 
of tone which only can charm the ear and reach the heart." 4. " In 
the reading of poetry the tones must be those of unaffected emotion, 
free at once from the tameness of prose, and from the too measured 
cadence of verse." Do we hazard anything in saying that not one 
in thousands of those who are accustomed to read in public, — clergy- 
men, lawyers, secretaries, clerks, &c., — even approaches the standard 
here prescribed ? But admitting that to give the needful instruction 
in this branch the teacher must be a good reader in the spirit of 
these rules, who is to judge whether the person who offers him- 
self as a teacher is one ? The Mr. Russell who lectures so accepta- 
bly on the subject to the normal schools ? No. The Mr. Lee who, 
impressed with the general neglect into which this branch of ele- 
mentary instruction had fallen, generously offered prizes for excel- 
lence? No. It must be the examining school committee who is 
expected (theoretically at least) to guard the public school against 
the entrance of any one " who is not himself a very good reader." 

To teach reading requires, it is said, "on the part of the 
teacher the rare quality of good taste, that is, delicacy of feeling 
under the guidance of good sense highly cultivated." This rare 
quality being possessed, the teacher will require the pupil to "read 
naturally and with proper spirit and feeling. * * * To this end two 
things are requisite: 1. The pupil never should be permitted to 
read aloud what he does 7iot fully U7ider stand.''' The italicising 
is not ours. 2. The other requisite is "a full possession of the 
sentiment under which the passage was written." 

However wise and sensible these requisites may be, they seem 
almost ridiculous when we think of the materials of which our 
reading books are made and of the average capacity and attainments 
of the teachers and pupils who handle them. We well remember 
visiting a school, having the average reputation of public schools 
as they were thirty years ago, and when one of the reading classes 
had exhibited their skill in reading prose, they were put upon an 
extract from Milton, which they read with considerable fluency 
though not with "good taste," as our extract defines it. It Avas 
the passage in Paradise Lost in which the poet describes the em- 
ployments of Adam and Eve in the garden- — 



IN THE UNITED STATES — MASSACHUSETTS. 133 

For neither Yarious style 
Nor holy rapture wanted they, to praise 
Their Maker in fit strains — pronounced or sung; 
* ' ^- -;«■ * * 

These are thy glorious works, Parent of Good ! 

At the close of the reading they were requested to lay aside 
their books, and were asked what the poetry was about that they 
had been reading. They promptly replied, "About Adam and 
Eve, sir." 

"Well, what about them?" 

After a few moments' pause, one of them timidly answered — 

"How they fit!" (fought). 

Her associations with the word "fit" were far enough from har- 
monizing with the occupations of our first parents — or " with the 
sentiment under which the passage was written." The truth is, that 
neither child nor teacher had any conception of the meaning of the 
words which were read, — and who was at fault ? - 

We might infer that cases of equal or greater deficiency are not 
rare now unless we misinterpret one of the reports of the School 
Committees : 

The style of reading in most of our schools is below even re- 
spectability. It is utterly beneath the dignity and claims of such 
an exercise. It is difiicult quietly to listen to the careless, sense- 
less and stupid mutterings that are sometimes wrongly denomi- 
nated reading.* 

Would that normal schools or some other instrumentality might 
succeed in making good readers for religious assemblies, town 
meetings, or the fireside. As it is now, a good reader is almost as 
rare as an honest politician. 

We trust the spirit of these strictures will not be misapprehended. 
We are aware of the difficulties which all reforms must encounter. 
We give full credit for all that is accomplished. But we cannot 
resist the conviction that a grade of instruction, far in advance of 
what the spirit of the law and public policy demand, engages the 
attention and the means of the Massachusetts Bureau of Education, 
and that while ten of the children and youth are favoured at public 
expense with superior advantages, the one hundred or the one 
thousand that are entitled to be thoroughly taught to read, write, 
cipher, and behave themselves, are left in the background. The 

"^' Amesbury. 
10 



134 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 

last ought to have been done even though the other -were left un- 
done. Nor are we alone in this judgment : 

We think it a fault quite too common that 'many of the pupils 
of the present day are passing superficially over the elementary 
branches, ambitious to take algebra, geometry and the other higher 
studies ; thus slighting the most essential rudiments necessary for a 
good practical education, and to prepare a person to perform all 
common operations faithfully and well. Reading and spelling — 
subjects connected with the very foundation of our own Common 
School System, we deem of the first importance.* 

There is a tendency in some of the schools to pursue the more 
advanced studies suited to the high school or academy to the neg- 
lect or total exclusion of those primary branches which our school 
system contemplates and which our statute law expressly re- 
quires, f The italics are in the report. 

Teachers' Institutes. — For teachers who are not in circumstances 
to avail themselves of the normal school, institutes have proved a 
valuable help, and have resulted in awakening a new interest in 
the schools. Fifteen hundred, or about one in five of the teachers 
returned for the State, were in attendance on one or more of the 
eight institutes that were organized during the year. The reports 
of the School Committees, in whose districts these meetings were 
held, refer to them in general terms of commendation; but where, 
by whom, or in what way their advantages are brought home to 
the schools is very vaguely shown, if at all. If they were more 
clearly exhibited, it might stimulate others to seek them. 

We have thus far had before us the report of the Secretary of 
the Board — in connection with which we have occasionally referred 
to the reports from the local authorities. We turn now, for a 
more specific purpose, to the abstracts of the reports of School 
Committees, which evince much intelligence and discrimination. A 
cursory glance through them will bring to our view sundry very 
important suggestions. Indeed a very valuable manual concern- 
ing the instruction and discipline of our public schools could be 
formed from these reports. Their practical character and breadth 
of view are quite remarkable, and they afford us a better insight 
into the real popular appreciation of the school system than can 
be looked for in the mere formal report of the functionary who ad- 
ministers it. We will advert to a few of the leading topics : 

* Ashbiiriihiiui. f Bhiudford. 



IN THE UNITED STATES — MASSACHUSETTS. 135 

1. Reading. — The importance of the art of reading is frequently 
recognized, and we are pleased to see that the "word-method," as 
it is called, or something near akin to it, is not unknown. One 
report speaks of requiring pupils to study the form of a letter to 
know its name and then to imitate the sound of it. They are then 
required to find it on a page or card, then to imitate its shape with 
a pencil on their slates. And when thus made familiar, the letters 
are combined into a word, which is made part of a sentence. The 
old method of teaching column after column and page after page 
of unconnected and (to the child) meaningless syllables, we are 
happy to learn, has been discarded in many primary schools. The 
opinion has been expressed that no books at all should be used in 
the instruction of children under eight years of age, but it is be- 
lieved that children of six and seven are not too young to learn to 
read with ease. Our own observation and experience conduct us 
to the conclusion that a knowledge of the form and sound of letters 
is easily attainable at three or four years of age by means of 
wooden blocks, with the letters of the small and large alphabets 
printed or painted on them in connection with some word in which 
the letter appears, the word to express some animate or inanimate 
object with which the child is familiar — as hat, cat, hed, hoop, 
door, &c. In this way he unconsciously acquires a degree of 
knowledge which kindles a desire for more, and before he is aware 
of it, his primer or picture book becomes at once an amusement 
and an employment, to the great relief of the mother or other 
caretaker. 

It is very rare to find a pupil in a public school who can read 
well, and the predominant reason is, that he reads what he does 
not and cannot understand, and therefore might nearly as well at- 
tempt to read in an unknown tongue. A boy who is ignorant of 
the meaning of Latin words, should not undertake to read them, 
for it would be difficult, if not impossible, for one who understands 
that language to understand his reading of it. For the same cause 
and to the same degree an English sentence, read by a boy or girl 
who does not understand the meaning and relation of the words, is, 
to a great extent, unintelligible to such as know English. 

It is worse than useless to burden a child's memory with words 
and sentences which cannot be comprehended.* 

'" Littleton. 



13G THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 

Scholars must understand and feel an interest in the piece 
read, and desire to awaken this interest in the reader in order to 
become good readers.* 

It is no uncommon thing for scholars to commit to memory 
lessons by frequent readings, to be unable to read properly one- 
half those sentences. f 

Before an arithmetic or a geography is put into a child's hands, 
he must be taught to read intelligibly and with ease.| 

The preliminary exercises in the books in regard to varied 
tones, inflection, emphasis, key of the voice, &c., are almost wholly 
neglected. Reading must be taught, and the least possible care 
on the part of the teacher for the most difiicult of all the daily 
exercises will not bring success. § 

It will not be supposed that the passages Ave cite from these 
reports indicate the general current of them. But we apprehend 
that it is only where a very faithful and discriminating investiga- 
tion is made that defects appear, and only obvious and very grave 
defects are noticed, and these only by fearless reporters. 

2. Attendance. — In two or three reports there are intimations 
favouring the compulsory attendance of children at the public 
schools. If the State provide the means of educating every child 
who is of age and capacity to learn, it is asked with great perti- 
nency, " If there is not a corresponding obligation on the part of 
the child or its parents to the State, and should there not be some 
way of enforcing this obligation for the public good?"|| 

Some parents positively refuse to send their children to school. 
" Such should be reminded that there is authority to enforce at- 
tendance under a penalty."^ 

What we most complain of is irregularity of attendance, amount- 
ing in some cases to a sort of " I don't care whether school keeps 
or not."** 

The attention of teachers has been called to it (irregularity 
of attendance), but they have failed in many cases to check it. 
Its magnitude has been computed in numbers and brought before 
you. Still the object is not attained. * * * "yyg j^^.g qqj^. 
vinced that no selection of teachers or appropriation of funds, 
however liberal, will raise our schools to the rank they ought to 
attain without the aid of other powerful agents, the most promi- 
nent of which is an undivided public interest, ff 

So long as fifty per cent, of money raised for the support of 

* Ilardwick. f Ware. J Milton. | Oukbam. || Danvers. 

^ Chester. ** Barre. f f Bo^iston. 



IN THE UNITED STATES — MASSACHUSETTS. 137 

schools is wasted by fifty per cent, of the scholars being allowed 
to absent themselves, we cannot ask for any larger appropriations 
until the people more fully peform their obligations to themselves 
and to their own children.* 

3. ll^nners and Morals. — The importance of cultivating good 
manners, in the largest acceptation of the phrase, is earnestly 
urged in several of these reports, and it cannot well be exagger- 
ated. As we have not given it much prominence in our survey of the 
other three States, we must crave some indulgence here. It is as 
legitimately a specific branch of public school instruction as gram- 
mar or arithmetic, and much more essential to "getting on" in the 
world. It includes " respectful and modest demeanour, simplicity, 
purity, and truthfulness in thought and speech." "Has not 
this branch of common school instruction, as a direct aim, been too 
little kept in view?"t I* i^ certainly not the fruit of any such 
cultivation that a person passing by the schoolhouse, must " whip 
up his horses for fear of stones or snow-balls," nor that rude words 
or gestures should characterize the group that surround it. The 
impression is not more general than just, that "the present genera- 
tion is declining in good manners. Direct instruction on this sub- 
ject is of vast importance."! 

Here (in the primary school) is the point where the education in 
manners and good behaviour must begin, if not already commenced 
at home; and where it can most readily be remedied if it has been 
begun in an uncouth or untidy way.§ 

When decay of reverence in the young is loudly complained 
of — when bad books are doing in angel dresses what Satan did in 
Paradise — when profaneness and obscenity are heard in our streets 
— when licentiousness is fevering the blood, and intemperance is 
maddening the brain of virtuous youth who come from the country 
into the cities — when our criminal courts send out statements of 
youthful corruption that stagger belief, should not something extra 
be done to protect our rising generation from pestiferous exam- 
ples ?|| 

We suppose the larger part of the youth, whose immoralities are 
here exposed, have been at some period under the care of common 
school teachers, or have received other and higher instruction. 

How shall " good behaviour" be taught in our public schools ? is a 
question which more than all others puzzles the educator. That 
it should be taught practically none will deny. * * As an im- 

* Adams, f Nahant. J Dana. § Marblehead. || Medford. 



138 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 

portant though minor matter, we hope that none of our teachers 
will forget to enforce, by example as well as by precept, those small ' 
proprieties of manner, and that scrupulous regard for neatness in 
every particular which children are so prone to neglect.* 

- We call to mind a public school which we visited not many years 
igo in the south-eastern part of New Jersey. It was at the mid- 
dle of a warm summer afternoon. The school building was very 
dirty, and Avas filled with that unwholesome, suffocating atmosphere 
which so many of our boys and girls are doomed to breathe. The 
teacher, a man of sixty perhaps (said to be a convert to Mormon- 
ism) was barefoot, and the legs of his pantaloons rolled up half way 
to the knees, exposing a surface unused to water. His whole appear- 
ance was slovenly and forbidding in the extreme, and what wonder 
that the group around him were dirty, ill-mannered, and ignorant. 

Nothing more surely indicates the national character than the 
personal temper and demeanour of the people in social life. In- 
deed, among the characteristics by which we distinguish nations 
are frivolity, reserve, cunning, coarseness, sensuality, &c., and these ' 
traits are wrought into the very texture of society. An import- 
ant feature of the public school teacher is, to mould the habits and 
manners of the multitude of children who have few advantages of 
moral or intellectual culture outside the schoolroom, into har- 
mony with what is pure and good and true. No one who is fami- 
liar with the ways of a large majority of our boys from fifteen to 
twenty years of age, not in our cities and populous towns only, but 
in rural districts that are not very remote from business centres — 
would suppose that they had ever been conversant with precepts 
or examples of pure speech or courteous manners. Where more 
properly than in a schoolroom, and upon whom more fitly than 
upon a group of children, may the duty be enjoined of being tem- 
perate in their meats and drinks, and of avoiding all filthy and un- 
wholesome habits, and especially those to which the people around 
them are most addicted? 

Then there is the habit of punctuality in fulfilling engage- 
ments. How common is it to promise work and not have it done 
in season, or to engage to pay a debt and not pay at the time ! The 
habit of frugality in the use of money, books, apparel, is another. 
We have often admonished children who were making a foot-ball 

* Salem. 



IN THE UNITED STATES — MASSACHUSETTS. 139 

of a cap, or draggling a shawl in the mud, or tossing a package of 
books into the air, that caps and shawls and books cost money, 
and should not be abused. This was the teacher's office, not ours. 
Principles of economy, too, cleaidy belong to the teaching of the 
schoolroom. Where as there and when as then can the maxims 
be so thoroughly inculcated to live within one's means, not to 
buy a needless article because it is cheap, not to be surety for 
others, never to spend money that is not one's own, &c., &c. ? 

But these constitute a very elementary branch of moral education. 
In its wider sphere it embraces whatever pertains to the highest 
state of civilization. To take but an item or two from the catalogue 
of virtues which it should inculcate, we may name simplicity of 
SPEECH. Who has not observed the reckless exaggeration which cha- 
racterizes much that is spoken or printed in our day ? To say 
nothing of the deliberate and atrocious deceptions which are practised 
upon the credulous in advertisements of nostrums and public shows, 
how rarely are the ordinary items of intelligence in public newspapers 
to be received without large deductions ! How few of the opinions 
of men and measures and books are expressed with that strict regard 
to their truthfulness which the "yea, yea" and the "nay, nay" of 
the New Testament require ! What evasions and subterfuges are 
employed to attract an audience, to excite sympathy in a benevo- 
lent object, to secure patronage for a school or a place of honour or 
profit for one's self or friend ! What is more common than 
misrepresentations (often almost caricatures) of the views of an op- 
ponent in politics or religion, and what bitter and lasting enmities 
are engendered by them ? If we may not ask common school 
teachers to guard the minds of their pupils from these more pal- 
pable forms of duplicity in their intercourse with others, we may 
at least urge them to be truthful and sincere in their own dealings 
with children, and to remember that a deception practised upon a 
parent or casual visitor, or an official examiner, with their knowl- 
edge or connivance, is an irreparable wrong to them and to the 
community. 

Another scarcely less important virtue which should be earnestly 
cultivated in our public schools is, self-conteol. How few are 
taught the necessity of this virtue, in circumstances of sudden peril 
or alarm by night or day! Look at the occupants of a crowded 
public hall, when a cry of fire or of a falling wall is raised. What 



140 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 

insane disorder seizes the assembly, and how blindly they rush 
from a possible death in one form to all but certain death in an 
other ! What is not this virtue worth in a teacher when such a terror 
seizes a group of two or three hundred children ? How many 
lives and limbs depend upon that self-possession of voice and man- 
ner which is to a great extent the fruit of cultivation ? 

So of the habitual motives of conduct. How unspeakably im- 
portant is it that our boys and girls should be accustomed in their 
school life to act from princij)le ! What dark, damning deeds of 
corruption, fraud, and duplicity might have been left undone had 
the maxim been impressed on the childhood and youth of the per- 
petrators, never to do what they would be ashamed or afraid to 
have known abroad ! In estimating the safeguards of public virtue 
and prosperity, what but the fear of God could possibly take pre- 
cedence of this principle, firmly imbedded in the hearts and minds 
of a generation between five and fifteen? 

Nothing is further from our minds than a mechanical formal re- 
hearsal at stated intervals, of the rules or laws that should govern 
our conduct. There are silent, subtle influences emanating from 
parents, teachers, and associates, that insensibly shape the moral 
character, not so much by interfering with or repressing, as by guid- 
ing and opening paths for natural impulses. 

4. Text-Books. — No more important subject is brought to view 
in these reports of the Massachusetts school committees than the 
use and abuse of text-books. Perhaps no feature of our public 
school system in all the States is left so entirely to take any shape 
it pleases as this. We have already alluded to it more than once. 
It would require a volume to give in detail a history of the rise and 
progress of school-book manufacturing and engineering. The enor- 
mous tax imposed to sustain it is so equally diffused, that no indi- 
vidual feels it enough to cry out, even where the duty of furnishing 
books devolves on the parents. Every batch of new books has the 
claim of novelty, at least in title, and the machinery employed to 
foist them upon the schools is too powerful and complicated to be 
opposed with success. 

The size and character of so many of the school books, too bulky 
(and therefore costly) by one-half, are objectionable. " When will 
the makers of books give us this desideratum, books containing the 
essentials of the subject and no more? Let what is necessary be com- 
pressed into small compass, not scattered through pages of matter 



IN THE UNITED STATES — MASSACHUSETTS. 141 

Avearying to the eye, useless to young scholars, and perplexing the 
very attempt to learn, jewels buried in what (to such) must appear 
one hopeless mass of mud."* 

We have too little oral instruction and too much confinement to 
text-books in our schools. Those teachers are always the most suc- 
cessful who have each branch of study so much at command that 
they can make themselves the text-books. As the forms in all or- 
ganized existence (quoting Coleridge), so must all true and living 
knowledge proceed from within, that it may be trained, supported, 
fed, excited, but can never be infused or impressed.f 

Any one can hear a lesson recited from a book. It is the duty 
of the true teacher to turn the rules, principles and data of that 
text-book into living practical power.| 

What is in the book is usually only an outline, a small part of 
all that should be taught. There should be vastly more of discus- 
sion, of questioning in various ways, of explanation, of collateral 
instruction, exciting curiosity, stimulating thought, extending the 
range of mental vision, intensifying and fixing all impressions in- 
tended to be made.§ 

Teachers should not be satisfied simply with the recitation of the 
look lesson by the pupil ; the treasures of knowledge, things new 
and old, should be found, out of the teacher's storehouse, to illumi- 
nate the text and fix it permanently in the learner's mind.jl 

Teachers should not be confined to text-books, lest the school 
become a monotonous routine of exercises, devoid of interest.'^ 

Fi'om day to day the drill in the exercises of the text-books, 
never anything outside, is untiring and unsparing. Memory alone 
of all the faculties is crowded and stimulated. Then comes the 
goal of his ambition, a splendid exhibition called by the committee 
"an examination." The machine is wound up, and whiz and whirr 
go the wheels. Never judge of the goose by the stufiing, said the 
English engineer Stephenson. * * * What we want are not mere 
school keepers to hear children repeat words from a text-book, but 
teachers.** 

Some experienced teachers would dispense with books entirely in 
the instruction of children under eight years of age.tf 

A teacher who only goes through a certain routine, is a speaking 
automaton, asking questions and hearing answers, having the same 
dead uniform round of duties, never enlivening a recitation with 
even a stray thought. J| 

5. Teachers. — One of the most notable revolutions in public 
sentiment connected with the school system in this State is, in re- 

* Newburyport. f Hopkinton. % Medford. f Melrose. 

II South Reading. ^ Russell. ** Walpole. ft South Danvers. 

XX Grafton. 



142 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 

lation to the employment of females in winter schools, and oven 
where large boys are in attendance. 

In the 15 years ending in 1851, the decrease of male teachers 
througliout the State of Massachusetts was 1012, and the increase 
of female teachers about 2000. The day is not far distant when 
females will have charge of all the district schools in the State.* 

There is a natural flexibility in the female mind — an " aptness 
to teach " (not inherent in the stronger sex), peculiarly adapted to 
elementary instruction and to pupils in our district schools. We 
think farther that in a winter school and with large scholars, a 
female, in most cases, Avill govern as well or better than a male.f 

As a remedy for the " great evil" of a frequent change of teach- 
ers, it is proposed that " a selection of competent female teachers" 
be made to conduct permanent schools the year round. We hesi- 
tate not to say, that as a class they are the best as well as the 
cheapest teachers. * * We speak of the general system for the 
education of children between 5 and 15 years of age.| The same 
position is taken in several reports. 

lie is a dull observer (says lion W. H. Seward, as quoted in 
the Longmeadow report), who has not learned that it was the in- 
tention of the Creator to commit to them (females) a higher and 
greater portion of responsibility in the education of youth of both 
sexes. 

We have scarcely a school, even in winter, which a good female 
teacher cannot manage successfully.! 

6. Primary Teachers. — Reference is made in several reports to 
the comparative inferiority of the teachers of primary departments, 
and hence it comes to pass that much time and patience are re- 
quired at the subsequent stages of instruction to correct the faults 
of an earlier period. 

It is a mistake to suppose that any one is competent to be a good 
primary teacher. On the contrary, we think it is quite as difficult 
to find first rate teachers for this department as for the interme- 
diate schools, as much general knowledge being required for the 
former as the latter, and perhaps even more. We think the im- 
portance of securing well educated teachers for the lower depart- 
ments is not appreciated as it should be.|| 

In my judgment it requires at least as high an order of talent 
fvo^erhj to govern and instruct a class of pupils of five years as 
one of twelve years. Upon the efforts of primary teachers we must 
very much rely to elevate a standard of popular education. ^ 

* West Newbury. f Princeton. J Longmeadow. \ Oakham. 

11 South Danvers. ^ Maiden. 



IN THE UNITED STATES — MASSACHUSETTS. 143 

From an oflBcial connection and a somewhat. intimate acquaint- 
ance "with teachers of this class of schools in Massachusetts in past 
years and in some other States more recently, we are prepared 
to give full force and credit to these views. Now and then a dis- 
trict is fortunate enough to secure the services of a teacher of in- 
genuity and enthusiasm in her work (for it is rarely that a male 
teacher succeeds in this stage of the process), and she contrives 
means of amusing, instructing and guiding her little flock with the 
best results. But for the most part they only introduce the chil- 
dren to a dull and' senseless routine, and to habits which, as we 
just said, years of labour are required to correct. 

7. Changing Teachers. — One of the most obvious causes of the in- 
efficiency and defects of the public schools of Massachusetts, which 
are so justly deprecated, is the frequent change of teachers. It 
might be supposed that the establishment of normal schools would 
bring into employment a body of professional teachers, who, if 
qualified for their work, would be engaged from year to year in 
the same school or district, thus giving uniformity and permanency 
both to the discipline and instruction. But the reports before us 
do not justify this expectation. Even of the small number of per- 
sons who pass through the normal school, many seek and find more 
lucrative employment. The increasing preponderance of females 
in the teaching ranks, promises more for the accomplishment of the 
desired result than any other means we have seen noticed. It is often 
regarded as sound economy to employ male teachers at a salary of 
$45 per month in winter, and females at a salary of $19 per month 
in summer. The idea has been (if it is not now) widely entertained 
that a winter school, embracing the older class of youth who are 
otherwise occupied in the summer months, must have masculine su- 
pervision and instruction, while a summer school may safely be com- 
mitted to, the gentler sex. Without inquiring into the justice of 
such a distinction between the two classes of teachers, we receive 
from many of the reports of the school committees the clear impres- 
sion that the superiority of males to females at any season and in 
any school, is an open question. If it should appear that in point 
of fact females do exercise as wholesome discipline, and do impart 
instruction with equal skill and thoroughness as males, the apology 
for frequent chnnges must be put on some other footing. Mean- 



144 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 

time is not an apology due for making so wide a difference in the 
compensation of services so nearly if not quite equally valuable ? 

In one district during the last seven years, a female teacher has 
been employed summer and winter. In another, females have been 
employed in summer and males in winter (having had about 14 
different teachers); and it is a fact apparent to any one who has ex- 
amined the two schools, that the former, in average scholarship, 
is at least two years in advance of the latter. The reason is no 
mystery. It arises from the simple facts of longer schools, better 
average teachers, and no time lost by the semi-annual change of 
teachers.* 

One great obstacle in the Avay of the progress of our schools, is 
the frequent change of teachers. No two teachers, who may be 
equally successful, have the same habits in the schoolroom or the 
same mode of imparting instruction. And when a scholar is under 
the direction of a new teacher each term, he cannot acquire any 
fixed habits of study or deportment. No scholar can make rapid 
progress or be well disciplined under such circumstances. f 

Our teachers are constantly changing. It is an exceptional case 
if one remains in the same school more than one or two terms, 
oftener but one. * * With every change the new teacher has to be- 
come established in her new situation, to become acquainted with 
the scholars, &c.'l 

Two or three teachers in several instances have successively con- 
ducted the same school in the short period of one year. The re- 
sults must be bad, for education is progressive, like the steps of a 
ladder, a series of processes, one depending on another. You waste 
time and mind in constantly changing the ladders and making the 
children so often begin again at the foot and climb over the great 
gaps of long vacations. No two teachers employ the same methods. 
The pliant minds of the children are baffled and confused. § 

Each teacher has a way of his own, and must sjiend half a term 
tearing away the superstructure of his predecessor, and rearing 
another which is not perhaps superior to the one superseded, and a 
great loss of time to the school is the only result. || 

Frequent changes of teachers in schools is (are) condemned by 
experienced educators. They tell us that the services of a good 
teacher are much more valuable the second time than the first. ^ 

The question may be pertinent Avhether we can expect qualified 
teachers would do such preliminary work well ; whether they would 
be satisfied with confinement to this elementary sphere ? If not 
ambitious of promotion, would they not soon grow weary of the 

* West Newbury. f Mansfield. :j: Braintree. 

^ Longmeadow. || Peru. ^ Lincoln. 



IN THE UNITED STATES — MASSACHUSETTS. 145 

monotonous task and abandon it for something more lucrative, if 
not more agreeable ? The inquiry has great weight. Very few, 
it is to be feared, enter upon the work with any just apprehension 
of its immeasurable importance and delicacy. How few teachers 
manifest any more concern to draw out in strength and harmony 
the powers of a human understanding and the affections of a human 
soul, than the trainers of horses, dogs and monkeys show, in teach- 
ing dumb animals to do their bidding ? There is a temple grand 
and glorious beyond human conception. Its grandeur rises and 
its glories multiply with every advancing step, and will rise and 
multiply through endless ages. Who would ask or desire a hap- 
pier or n6bler appointment than to stand at the door of entrance 
to such a temple, and introduce hundreds and thousands of 
little strangers to the wonders within ? When the dignity and 
blessedness of such a service is fully apprehended, the question 
of dollars and cents Avill become comparatively insignificant. Till 
then we would reverse the ratio of compensation, and make the 
work of the daily common school teacher the best paid work of 
the country, but it should be the best done as well as best paid. 

8. Schoolhouses. — We have already said that there is no surer 
test of the estimation in which a common school is held by a neigh- 
bourhood than the character and condition of the schoolhouse. No 
one passes a barn, having large gaps in the roof, boards hanging 
by a nail, doors swinging on one hinge and open to wind and 
storm on all sideSj without a persuasion that the owner cares very 
little if the poor, dumb creatures that occupy it freeze or starve. 
Not less evident is the indifference of parents to the schooling of 
their children and to the comfort and usefulness of the teacher, 
when the schoolhouse is cheerless, dilapidated and unfurnished. 
And, on the contrary, a tasteful, commodious schoolhouse, and 
tidy outbuildings, eligibly situated, with grounds fenced in and 
fitted for recreation, well ventilated, wholesomely heated and sup- 
plied with appropriate furniture for body and mind, speaks elo- 
quently for the public spirit and wise forecast of the neighbourhood. 

Why (we cannot but ask) are parents so content to have their 
children occupy, for six hours of the day during six months of the 
year, buildings and seats which do little more than torture the 
fathers and mothers at the half-day examination ? They who like 
an easy chair, balanced on two legs, "with cushioned seat and 



146 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 

back," should not be uncharitable enough to wonder that the chil- 
dren love their school hours so little.* 

While we are improving our dwellings both internally and ex- 
ternally, most of our schoolhouscs are, year by year, growing 
worse. Few scholars would be attracted by an old, dilapidated 
building, destitute, externally, of paint, except perhaps a dingy 
coat of red, the playgrounds crowding so closely on the highway 
that it is impossible to distinguish one from the other ; with no 
shade trees except perhaps the use of one borrowed of some neigh- 
bour across the way, with an interior begrimed with the smoke and 
dust of the last twenty years, rickety seats and desks, pannel-less 
and latch-less doors, chairs broken and perhaps Avithout backs, and 
everything offensive to the eye.f 

A little reflection will show to parents, we think, that there is 
in reality no way in which they can invest a portion of their earn- 
ings at so large a percentage of profit to their children as in fur- 
nishing them with neat, inviting, and comfortable schoolhouscs. 
Why is it that so many parents Avill consent to subject their chil- 
dren to such physical sufferings as they must endure while seated 
upon some of the old, high, narrow, and cramped-up seats found 
in some of our schoolhouscs, — physical sufferings which, if inflicted 
by the teacher, would almost instantly cause his summary expul- 
sion from the school. | 

Rarely will a child tire of a school when the fixtures and sur- 
roundings of the schoolroom give evidence of liveliness in the cause 
of education. § 

Let us as parents and committees see to it that we do not by our 
neglect subject ourselves to the charge of being the murderers of 
the innocents. II 

9. Religious Teaching. — Few subjects connected with our com- 
mon schools have excited more discussion and jealousy than the 
extent to which religious teaching can be carried consistently with 
the avowed pledge of neutrality towards all Christian denomina- 
tions, and the remark is especially applicable to Massachusetts. 
Is there a broad ground of Christian ethics on which our secular 
schools can rest for this important and essential element of true 
education? Or must we be driven to the alternative of rejecting 
all religious influence or adopting and enforcing the dogmas of 
this or that communion ? We once put the question to a direc- 
tor of the public schools of one of our chief cities, whether he 
supposed a teacher would be justified, when rebuking a couple of 
boys for fighting, if he referred to the words of Christ touching 

* Sterling. f Southwick. J RoL-licster. l Haverhill. || Diacut. 



IN THE UNITED STATES — MASSACHUSETTS. 147 

our conduct under provocation, as the words of a divine being ? 
He replied that he was " inclined to think it would not be al- 
lowed." Books teaching the doctrine of the endless punishment 
of the finally impenitent, have been rejected times without number 
as contraband in these schools. 

There was comparatively little controversy on the subject of re- 
ligious teaching under the old system in Massachusetts. The 
functions of the State were at an end when suitable legislation 
had provided for the establishment of a sufficient number of 
schools. The money to support them was to be raised by the 
several towns and expended by the districts, and whatsoever the 
majority tolerated or prohibited was the law for their district. 
But when the State became not only the legislator but the educa- 
tor, then arose the question of its right to authorize any religious 
teaching which is not as agreeable to all Jews as to all Christians — 
to Turks and Infidels as to Protestants and Papists. The law of 
the State requires, as Ave have seen, ''the daily reading of some 
portion of the Bible in the common English version." And an- 
other provision enjoins it on " all instructors of youth to exert 
their best endeavours to impress on the minds of children and youth 
the principles of piety and justice."* The idea of conducting the 
education of a moral and spiritual, as well as an intellectual being 
without employing any moral and spiritual influence which does 
not receive universal concurrence, would seem as preposterous as 
the attempt to restore suspended animation by the exclusion of air 
which everybody has not breathed ! 

When foreigners investigate our educational institutions, they 
almost uniformly express their surprise at the absence of all re- 

* We gladly repeat a quotation often made from the pen of one of the most dis- 
tinguished jurists of the country and the age (the late Mr. Justice Story), in his 
elaborate work on the Constitution : 

The promulgation of the great doctrines of religion — the being, attributes and 
providence of one Almighty God, the responsibility to Him for all our actions 
founded upon moral freedom and accountability, a future state of rewards and pun- 
ishments, the cultivation of all the social and benevolent virtues, — these can never be 
a matter of indilierence in any well-ordered community. It is indeed difficult to 
perceive how any civilized society can well exist without them. And, at all events 
it is impossible for those who believe in the truths of Christianity — as a divine re- 
velation — to doubt that it is the special duty of Government to foster and encour- 
age it among all the citizens and subjects. 

If this is sound doctrine, it is surely pertinent to inquire when or where the 
truths of a divine revelation are to be instilled in the minds of a generation of our 
citizens, if not in the daily public school? 



148 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL 

ligious teaching. And when they are told that Sunday-schools are 
mainly relied upon to supply it, they are not less surprised that 
so insignificant a portion of time as an hour or two in the week, 
and such an irresponsible, hap-hazard agency (for so they regard 
it) should be considered sufficient to fill -so wide a gap in the 
routine of the daily public school. The laxity of moral principle 
which of late years has been observed by many with alarm, but by 
most with indifference, betrays the general neglect into which this 
cardinal branch of popular education has fallen. The late Ex- 
Governor Clifford, of Massachusetts, gives the following testimony 
touching this subject : 

I can safely say, as a general inference drawn from a long fa- 
miliarity with the prosecution of crime both as District Attorney 
and Attorney General, that as flagrant cases and as depraved cha- 
racters have been exhibited amongst a class of persons who have 
enjoyed the ordinary elementary instruction of our New England 
schools — and in some instances of the higher institutions of learn- 
ing — as could be found by the most diligent investigation among 
the convicts of Norfolk Island or of Botany Bay. 

We cannot avoid the conviction that under political institutions 
so free as ours, and with a population so heterogeneous, the exclusion 
of systematic, judicious, thorough religious instruction from the pub- 
lic schools is a radical, and, we fear, fatal defect. It is not the read- 
ing of the Scriptures, nor a devotional service, nor an occasional 
recognition of moral obligation, however desirable these may be, 
that is " to establish in our youth the principles of piety and jus- 
tice and a sacred regard to truth." The conscience must be awak- 
ened ; the recognition of an infinitely perfect law, binding upon all 
moral and intelligent beings, must be inculcated. The right of 
'government, divine and human, and the duty of obedience and the 
consequences of disobedience must be set forth, not in formal ex- 
hortations, perhaps, but incidentally and naturally in the daily 
order of school life. It must be incorporated with studies, pas- 
times, commendations and reproofs. It must have its time and 
place, even in the playground. The sacred influence should distil 
from the temper, tone of voice, gentle demeanour and tender sym- 
pathy of the teacher upon the young hearts about him. If he ap- 
preciates the responsibility of his post and comprehends the true 
end of educating a child, he will have no difficulty in mingling the 
precepts of morality and the principles of piety with the current 



IN THE UNITED STATES — MASSACHUSETTS. 149 

of daily instruction and intercourse with boys and girls ; and that 
too without trespassing on the rights of conscience or stepping a 
hair's breadth out of his proper province as a servant of the State. 
Where else but under his tuition are the teachings of the street 
and the evil communications of companions to be counteracted, or 
the deficiency of domestic instruction and example to be supplied ? 
"The moment we prevent the teacher from exciting these (religious) 
influences, we narrow his work and it is shorn of all its original 
greatness."* 

Knowledge is power, but it may be devoted to bad as well as 
good uses. An expert in penmanship, without moral control, may 
become an adroit forger or counterfeiter. Our system of educa- 
tion must welcome an alliance with virtue and be vitalized by a 
moral and spiritual influence.f 

Education moulds the heart. Its mission is not only to impart 
good gifts but to ennoble and elevate the soul. The trained i-ntel- 
lect may be an engine of destruction if the heart be corrupt. We 
should say that the tendency of the general drift and current of 
the education in our schools is to give prominence to the culture 
of the intellect without a corresponding culture of the heart. | 

The moral training of our children and youth should receive in- 
creased attention in our public schools. The young greatly need 
moral training. Moral character should stand higher than intel- 
lectual attainments. They should be led to entertain a profound 
reverence for the teachings of the Bible. § 

More importance should be attached to this branch of education, 
so that children may come to really aWior lying and deceit, and be 
made to feel the power of those eternal truths which distinguish 
between good and bad, right and wrong, especially when it is so 
easy, without any hinderance, to teach these principles in the school- 
room. || 

The teacher's work is not completed, the child is not educated, 
till he has woven into the web of his intellectual development some- 
thing of moral principle. If 

While keeping at the utmost distance from sectarian bigotry and 
party issues of every kind in conducting the public schools, we 
must carefully avoid every approach to moral laxity.** 

* Rev. R. 0. Waterston. -j- Newton. % Braintree. § Hardwick. 

II Monson. ^ East Bridgewater. ** Dana. 



11 



150 THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHOOL, 

In revie^ving the preceding sketch of the legislation and ma- 
chinery of these four leading States of our Union as they bear on 
the daily public school, it is not an easy matter to detect any 
grand controlling advantage which either has over the rest, in diffus- 
ing the elements of good learning throughout the masses of children 
and youth. The higher grades of schools and of instruction "which 
may be observed in some and not in others ; the provision for in- 
struction in politics, astronomy, rhetoric, philology, &c., and the 
more systematic training of teachers, however incidentally valu- 
able in raising the standard of instruction in the public schools, 
are by no means essential to the accomplishment of the legitimate 
purpose of such schools. The highest grade of instruction needed for 
this is prescribed by law. It embraces speaking, reading, writing, 
(and, of course, spelling) the English language correctly, such a 
knowledge of the elements of arithmetic as shall answer the common 
business of life ; a general idea of the grand divisions of the globe, 
their relative position and character, and of the extent and general 
features of the different sections of their own country; and so much 
knowledge of its government and laws as shall acquaint them with 
the privileges, rights and obligations of a citizen ; the whole crowned 
with faithful instruction in such moral and social duties as are incum- 
bent on a husband or wife, a parent, a neighbour, and a citizen. 

Were the legislative and municipal provisions of the several Com- 
monwealths under review pared down so as to include only what is 
popularly understood by the "common branches," though there 
might still be an obvious difference between the schools of Ohio and 
New York, and between those of Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, it 
would be produced by the general character of the people of the 
several communities rather than by the laws or machinery govern- 
ing the schools. Were the provisions common to all the four States 
for protecting the schools from incompetent teachers carried out with 
equal intelligence and efficiency ; were the schoolhouses in each of 
them equally commodious, well situated and furnished, and the at- 
tendance equally good, it would doubtless be found that up to the 
stage or step in the process of education where the office of the daily 
public school ends, the difference in the average attainments of the 
pupils in the several States would be loss than between two schools 
of the same grade in the same town. But above that stage or step 
the difference would, perhaps, be very wide and definite. 



IN THE UNITED STATES — MASSACHUSETTS. 151 

We had intended to compare the school systems which have been 
now considered with those of Europe, and especially of England, 
and their results ; but a cursory examination of the subject, soon 
satisfied us that for any practical use it would be superfluous. The 
difference in our populations and political institutions is radical. 
Among monarchical and despotic rulers the question is not what 
the people will like, but what their masters think they ought to 
like. With us, the question is (at least theoretically), what is the 
will of the people, and this governs the people's servants. We 
cannot /orce schools, nor attendance, however liberal our expendi- 
tures or superior our teachers. In a word, if the people choose 
that their children should be ignorant, ignorant they must be ; and 
when they choose to have them educated, educated they will be. 

Hence our earnest plea for more care and labour to make the daily 
PUBLIC SCHOOL a happy, busy, attractive place to the boys and girls 
that we want to see there, and of course attractive to their parents. 
We would have the public eye withdrawn for a season if need be, 
from the palatial structures and imposing grandeur of high and 
normal schools, and fixed upon the actual condition and practical 
value of that humbler grade on which nine-tenths of the people 
must depend for education. We must not be told that these supe- 
rior seminaries are needed for the very purpose of energizing and 
improving the daily public school, unless upon better evidence of 
their adaptation and actual availableness to this end, than is fur- 
nished by these reports. 

Whenever the daily public schools have a measure of vitality and 
vigour that can no longer be confined to the narrow dimensions of the 
country schoolhouse, but must have room to expand, by all means, 
afford it. But let us not deceive ourselves with the fancy that the 
tree will grow downwards. The intelligence on which our institu- 
tions rest is very humble in degree, but, such as it is, it must be 
thorough and widely diffused, or it will not avail. And we cannot 
afford to lose much time in correcting what is amiss and strength- 
ening what is weak. Each successive uneducated generation in- 
creases the stock of ignorance and diminishes the power and the 
practicability of enlightening it. Let every good citizen, then, 
look into this matter calmly and without prejudice, and give such 
heed to the plain suggestions, which one of their number has ven- 
tured to make, as befits the importance of the subject. 



INDEX. 



PAGE 

Army, our late, degree of education in . . . . .11 

Ascham, Koger, a wise saying of his . . . . . 31 

Attendance on public schools should be obligatory ... 28, 29 

■what it is, in the United States .... 28 

Athenian father's estimation of education . . . . .41 

Authorities, submission to, a cardinal point in public education . . 19 

Binney, Hon. Horace, letter from . . . . . .8 

Boys, American, what should be their education . . . . 17 

Butcher, not born to be a painter . . . . . .31 

Children of the United States, where educated . . . . 15 

how mis-treated in primary schools, . .29 

how relieved of home tasks . . 39 

Colleges and Academies, what part they have in public education . . 15 

commercial, polytechnic, &c., their value . 26 

Crime and ignorance, not a local calamity ..... 7 

Daily public school, how far the educating agency of the country . 13 
the main point of interest . . .20, 67, 105 

due appreciation of, essential . . . . 21 

what is meant by it . . . . .21 

what will bring it into favour . . . 22 

what it should do .... 40, 65 

influence on manners and morals ... 66 

abridged, and how . 92 

designed to diffuse, not concentrate learning . . 93, 126 

District Libraries. See Libraries. 

Education, public, in the United States, outline of history of . ' '. . 5 

in a measure, must be universal .... 7 
national, system of, why not provided .... 8 

want of, how disadvantageous ... 9 

State, responsible for, how far . . . . . 13, 98 

foreign systems of, inappropriate to the United States . . 9, 151 

of the national mind, how tested . . . . 10;. ^1 

of the mass of people in common branches, how shown . 11 
grade of, what it should be ..... 40 

primary, what it should do .... . 40 



154 



INDEX. 



Education, in four of the States, general statistics of . 

of manners, its necessity 
Eulogiums on our jniblic schools, misplaced 
Examinations, public, their inconclusiveness 

illustrations of 

Foundation work, what it should be . . . 

France, popular education in, state of, (note) . 
Funds. See Statistics of different States. 





PAQE 






42 


G7, 


9G, 


146 
22 
62 




63 


64 




11 


41 
11 



Girls, American, what should be their education 
Graded schools, their advantage 

policy of . . . 



18 

50, 91 

91 



High Schools, whence they should come, and how be sustained 
two aspects of their agency 
no hostility to them in their place . 
how their absence may be more than compensated 

Home, its educating power ..... 



Infant Schools, their place and use 
Ignorance, popular, its progeny 
proofs of . 

not confined to the humbler classes 
Inside teacher, importance of his co-operation 
Institutes, limited power of 

utility of . 

defects of . . . 

how maintained . 

how far of use 



Knowledge, of three classes of subjects, necessary to everybody 

Latin grammar, size and price of ... . 

Libraries, district school, condition of . . . 

history, and prospects of, in New York 



20 
. 25 

68 
. 92 
15, 98 

10 

1 
11 
12 
63 

134 

82 

83 

108 

115 

14 

37 

55 
106 



Massachusetts schools, synopsis of laws .... 117,121 

requisitions of . . . . . 121 

school system changes of, in the last thirty years . . 122 

compared with a former period . . 122 

popular estimation of . . . .123 

indispcnsableness of external agencies . 1 23 

inference there- 
from . . 123 
indications of want of popular sympathy, home 
testimony . . . . .125 



INDEX. 



155 



Massachusetts, teachers, and their compensation .... 

High Schools, where required .... 

how far provided .... 

branches taught in . 
Normal Schools, number of pupils in . 

for what class of schools they train teachers 
what a Normal School should be 
vagueness of reports about their fruits . 
what they ought to show 
singular requisites in one branch of instruction 
their inappropriateness to practical purposes 
Teachers' Institutes, their success . 
reports of School Committees on reading 

on attendance 

on manners and morals 

on text-books 

on teachers 

on primary instruction 

on changing teachers . 

on schoolhouses 

on religious teaching 



PAGE 

125 
127 

127 
12T 
128 
128 
129 
129 
131 
131 
133 
134 
135 
136 
137 
140 
141 
142 
143 
145 
146 



New Jersey, condition of schools in 

what is wanted to improve it 
Normal School of, its value to daily public school 
New York school laws, synopsis of 

general statistics of schools 

in rural and city districts, instructively compared 

cost of schools . 

attendance at schools 

parental co-operation deficient . 

number of teachers . 

district libraries . 

history of . 
likely to disappear 
Normal School, attendance at 

its position in the reports 
teacher's classes in academies 
Institutes, how maintained 

far of use 
teachers, qualifications of 

how certified of 
important deficiencies of 
popular estimation of them 
radical defect in system 
schoolhouses and out-buildings 
their condition 



100- 



12 
32 
33 
-103 
103 
lOG 
lOG 
105 
105 
106 
106 
1C6 
107 
107 
108 
108 
108 
118 
109 
113 
116 
110 
111 
111 
112 



156 



INDEX. 



New York, text-books, and evils of their multiplication 

popular heart not in the schools 
Normal Schools, test of their value to the daily public school . 20, 81 

general influence of ... . 

possible disadvantages .... 

graduates of, attractions of daily school to them 
when they are out of place .... 
how regarded in rural districts . 
for what class of schools they train teachers 
what one should be ... . 

vagueness of reports about .... 
Ohio, daily school, synopsis of laws .... 

general statistics ..... 
expectations excited by . . . 

popular estimation of ... . 

comparative views of . 

incompetent local officers .... 
number of teachers in ... 

qualifications and compensation of teachers 
brevity of school term and cause 
schoolhouses ..... 

cost of . 
condition of . 
Libraries, condition of . . . 

Institutes, number and value 
defects of general system 

unfitness of teachers .... 

imperfection of returns and causes of it 
graded schools, their advantage 
new guards against incompetency in teachers 
what the reports of County Auditors show 
State Commissioner's appreciation of the system 
morals and manners in . 

neglect of 
Order in school, one secret of . 

Parents and others, their visits to schools, are they desirable 

how they can do most for the daily school 
Pennsylvania, school laws, synopsis of . 
schools, statistics of . 
attendance on public schools 
teachers, number of, pay, and permanency 
male and female compared 
incompetent, largely employed 
system defective in structure 

Institutes and Normal Schools .... 

their limited power 



PAOU 

. 113 

IIG 

131, 133 

30 

30 

32 

33 

108 

. 128 
129 

. 129 

43, 46 
4G 
67 

52, 6T 
48 
49 
49 
50 
51 
52 
53 
56 
55 
56 
51 
58 
59 
59 
60 
CI 
Gl 
68 
68 

. 78 

89 

90, 91 

69, 73 

73 

21 

. 74 

75 

76 

77 

. 78 

78 



experiments in training teachers 



INDEX. 



157 



Pennsylvania, Institutes and Normal Schools, condition and fruits of 

testinaony from districts 
their true office 

how their fruits should be 
shown 
District Instithtes ..... 

component parts of machinery 
County Institutes . . ... 

Institute system not successful .... 

methods of improving 
schoolhouses, general infelicity of site 

regarded as a "desecration of the soil" 
singular stipulations about one 
what one should be 
condition of, as reported 
comparison of, with other public buildings 
importance of visits by parents and others, 
over-rated .... 

graded schools, policy of .... • 

what is the obligation of the State 

multiplicity of text-books, evil of ... . 

plan to remedy, how defeated 
moral and religious instruction . . . . 

appreciated in some districts 
general conclusion respecting 
People's Colleges, not colleges for the people .... 

Philadelphia, City Councils' action on High Schools . . . . 



PAGE 

79 
80 
81 

81 
82 

. 82 
82 

83, 86 
8, 36 
85 
85 
86 
86 

87, 88 
89 

90 
91 
93 

94 
95 
96 
98 
99 
93 
24 



Popular estimation of public schools 



21, 47, 52, 99, 105, 110, 122 



Reading, singular requirements in teaching 

and not understanding, illustration of 

Religious teaching in schools, what it should be 

what it is in Pennsylvania 
in Massachusetts 

Reports, vagueness of, in respect to reading and writing 



. 131 
132 

18, 91 
96 

. 146 
13 



School, its impalpable influences 

what are its chief advantages 
Schoolhouses, what they should be 
condition of, in Ohio 

Pennsylvania 
compared with other public buildings 
their condition in New York 

Massachusetts 
School life, three stages of . . . 

State, its obligations in the matter of education 
Stouber and the schoolmaster in Walbach school 
12 



13 
^3 

. 22 

54 
86, 88 

89 

. 112 

148 

64 

98 
. 77 



158 



INDEX. 



Teachers, where their work lies ..... 
who are made suck of men, not born 
temporary, most unqualified, and why . 
male and female compared .... 
obstacles to making teaching a profession 
how their influence is exerted 
Text-books, what they should be . 

what they are ..... 

their proper use .... 

annual expenses of .... 

speculation in . 

their preparation, sketch of . . . 

cost of their multiplicity . . : . 

illustration of . 
plan to check, how defeated 
no competent tribunal to judge of their fitness 
Thoroughness of education, the chief aim 



39. 



94. 



20, 9: 



PAGE 
16 

29 
31 

. T5 
76 

. 97 
. 34,37 
35 
37 
38 
38 

. 38 
113, 140 

. 94 

95 

95 

!, 93, 151 



AVorship, public, why not more generally frequented 



20 



